Savin' The Galaxy Again
by No Guns Only Roses
Summary: The Guardians of the Galaxy are back! And they're bringing Mikey and Leo with them on another epic galactic journey. After narrowly escaping the wrath of the Sovereign they meet the mysterious Ego, who claims to be Peter Quill's father. But they soon discover a dark secret about him that will change everything and possibly even destroy the universe. Crossover with the second movie.
1. Chapter 1

**Thank you all so much for reviewing and reading the first story! And thank you for voting for it in the 2017 TMNT Universal Reader's Choice Awards! It got Second Place for "Best Crossover"! And so here's the sequel! :D**

 **This fics takes place after the series finale of TMNT, "Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady" and is set during the second GOTG movie.**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

"Gooooooood morning, New York!" Mikey shouted with glee as he ran out of his bedroom and slid into the living room. Of course his brothers weren't up yet; he always got up at least an hour before the rest of them to make breakfast.

"What's cooking without a little music?" He took out his T-Phone and pulled up his list of downloaded music, pressing "play" to the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. As the music began to play, he walked into the kitchen and reached into the fridge for the eggs and milk.

 _Is this the real life?_

 _Is this just fantasy?_

 _Caught in a landslide_

 _No escape from reality_

 _Open your eyes_

 _Look up to the skies and see_

 _I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy_

 _Because I'm easy come, easy go_

 _A little high, little low_

 _Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me_

 _To me_

After setting the eggs and milk down on the counter, he opened the door to the freezer and pulled Ice Cream Kitty out. The dairy feline mewed happily as she licked him on the nose, leaving a pink drop on the tip of his beak.

Mikey giggled and licked her back. "Morning, Kitty!" He put her bowl down on the table and proceeded to making breakfast: French toast.

...

The smell of bread being grilled crept into Leo's bedroom and brought the Turtle out of his sleep. He took a couple of whiffs and a small smile formed on his lips. Mikey was making French toast, his favorite.

Every morning before breakfast, Leo would go to the dojo and kneel before Splinter's shrine, paying his respects to his late father. Sometimes his spirit would appear to give his eldest son wisdom and advice during times of trouble, but it just wasn't the same. He wanted his father here with them physically and all the time, like the good old days. He knew that his brothers felt exactly the same way as he did, and it hurt his heart to see them so forlorn whenever they would talk and mention about their dad.

But out of all his younger brothers, Leo worried about Mikey the most. The youngest of their group was also the most sensitive and emotional, and the tragedy that took their father away perhaps hurt him the most, even more than it did Leo. Of course, Mikey would try to hide his inner most feelings from everyone with a big smile and pretend to be fine, but Leo could see right through his little brother. Even the music that Mikey has been listening to lately betrayed how he really felt, upbeat yet with depressing and dark lyrics.

After spending about ten minutes in the dojo, he headed toward the kitchen and could hear one of Mikey's songs playing, "Jump" by Van Halen.

 _Ah, might as well jump_

 _(Jump!)_

 _Might as well jump_

 _Go ahead and jump_

 _(Jump!)_

 _Go ahead and jump_

 _Ow, oh, hey you_

 _W_ _ho said that?_

 _Baby, how you been?_

Leo peeked his head in and saw Mikey humming merrily along as he did the finishing touches on the French toasts, topping them with whipped cream and strawberries. The younger Turtle noticed his brother and smiled at him. "Morning, Leo!" He gestured to the French toast on the table and spoke in a fake French accent, "Breakfast is-a served, Monsignor!"

Leo chuckled and walked into the kitchen. "It's Monsieur, Mikey." He took his seat at the table and looked down at the food before him. On top of his French toast pile, a smiley face shaped with a whipped cream mouth and two stawberry eyes stared back at him. "Well, my breakfast looks rather...happy."

"Happy to see you this morning!" Mikey exclaimed as he squirted whipped cream onto Kitty's head. For some reason, he really liked doing that to her.

The music continued to play on Mikey's phone as they started to eat.

 _Ah, might as well jump_

 _(Jump!)_

 _Go ahead and jump_

 _Might as well jump_

 _(Jump!)_

 _Go ahead and jump_

 _JUMP!_

When it got to the radical guitar solo, Leo lifted his eyes from his food and up at Mikey. The young cook seemed to enjoy his culinary artwork, humming in approval and delight at each bite. Mikey noticed him looking and stopped eating, his mouth still full and his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk's. "Iz if goof?" he asked muffled.

Leo chuckled softly and nodded. "It is. Thank you, Mikey."

"I thought I heard Van Halen in here."

They both turned to see Raph and Donnie standing at the kitchen doorway. Raph had Chompy on his shoulder, and the little space turtle was nibbling at the ends of his already tattered red mask. Donnie looked like a zombie, as he did every morning after working so many hours in the lab the night before.

"Morning, bros!" Mikey cheerfully greeted them. "Come get your breakfast!"

Raph was the first to reach the table and the first to see Mikey's artwork. He raised an eye ridge at his breakfast and then rolled his eyes. "How original," he mumbled sarcastically. "No offense, Mikey, but I came in here expecting to eat _food_ , not art."

"You can still eat it!" Mikey insisted with a smile. "Mr. Smiley is an added bonus to start the day off with fun and good feelings!"

"...Whatever." Raph took his fork and stabbed it into the pile of toasts. He picked off the strawberries and gave them to Chompy who sat on the table next to his plate.

Donnie took his seat and picked up his fork, but when he saw the strawberries on his food, he picked them off with a displeased look. "Mikey, you know I don't like strawberries."

"Sorry, D," Mikey said sheepishly. "I keep forgetting."

Leo frowned disapprovingly at Raph and Donnie. Couldn't they at least thank Mikey for making breakfast for them? "Guys, be grateful," he said sternly. "Mikey put a lot of effort into this."

Raph growled softly in annoyance. "Yes, Mother."

Mikey flashed Leo a grateful grin and went back to eating. At least one person here appreciated his cooking.

* * *

Later that night, Leo paired up Mikey and Raph with Donnie for their usual nighttime patrol. The eldest and the youngest sat at the ledge of a building, keeping watch for ant suspicious activity on the streets below. So far, nothing. It's been extremely boring and uneventful since the Bebop and Rocksteady incident. No supervillains to fight or going on interdimensional travels. All they did lately was play video and board games, go on patrols, and eat snacks and pizza.

At one point, Mikey looked up at the starry sky, reminiscing about their days in space. They visited amazing and strange worlds and made some awesome new friends (and even found romance in Raph's case). Among those friends were the Guardians of the galaxy, a group of nobodies and criminals who, with Mikey's help, defeated the power-mad Ronan the Accuser and prevented him from using the power of the Infinity stone to destroy the galaxy and possibly the universe. They were a strange bunch, but they were the coolest friends Mikey ever had. They were like family, even. A dysfunctional but close family.

Mikey sighed deeply, the twinkling dots in the dark sky reflecting in his sad eyes. He really missed hanging out with the Guardians.

Leo heard his sigh and looked over at him. "Mikey, are you okay?"

Mikey turned his head to where Leo sat and quickly nodded, a forced smile on his face. "Uh-huh. Yeah. Everything's cool."

The older brother raised a skeptical eye ridge. "Are you sure?"

Mikey nodded again. "Totally."

Leo let out a sigh of his own and looked back down at the street. When was Mikey going to be honest with him? It was really frustrating. He had been burdened with the responsibility of being the eldest brother _and_ clan master, but lately he's been feeling like a complete failure. Why did Sensei place so much trust in him?

"Hey, Leo?"

Leo's face brightened up with hope. Was Mikey finally opening up to him? "Yeah, Mikey?"

"What the heck is that?"

"Huh?" He looked at his brother, who was staring and pointing at the sky. He followed Mikey's gaze and his eyes immediately widened. A bright yellow light that shone brighter than the stars was getting larger and larger by the second, like it was heading straight toward them.

Leo's heart skipped a beat when he realized that it _was_ hurling toward them. Was it a meteor or an attack by an unseen force? He quickly grabbed Mikey's arm and pulled him along as he ran to the rooftop closest to theirs. "MIKEY, RUN!"

But before Leo could make a leap onto the next building, Mikey jerked his arm away. "Dude, wait!" The younger Turtle pointed to the mysterious falling object. "Look!"

Although he wanted to make a run for it, Leo stayed where he was and looked closer. He was shocked to see that the "meteor" was actually a ship. A Nova Corps ship to be exact. It slowed down as it got closer to the rooftop and it hovered over them with a loud hum.

"Nova Corps?" Leo scratched his head. "What are _they_ doing here?"

They both stepped back as the ship got to about fifteen feet above the rooftop, and when it finally landed, the front of it opened to reveal a man with short curly brown hair sitting in the pilot seat.

Mikey immediately recognized him and he gasped loudly. "Corpsman Dey?!"

"Uh, actually, it's _Denarian_ Dey now, remember?" He stepped out of the ship and walked over to where the two Turtles stood. He grinned and saluted to Mikey. "It's good to see you again, Michelangelo."

Mikey excitedly saluted back. "Same here, dude! What are you doing here on Earth?"

"I've been sent by Nova Prime to retrieve _you_."

Mikey's eyes widened and he pointed to himself. "Me?"

Dey nodded. "Well, actually, if you want to get technical, the Guardians were the ones who asked for you."

"They did?!" Mikey's eyes sparkled at the mention of his old friends. "Really?!"

"Hold on," Leo came forward and stood between the two. "What is this about? Why did they send you to pick him up?"

"The Guardians have been assigned a mission that requires fighting an inter-dimensional monster that feeds on the power sources of other planets," Dey explained. "A fairly easy assignment, nothing they can't handle. But they insisted on bringing your brother along."

"Why?"

Dey shrugged. "I dunno. 'Cause they miss him, I guess."

Mikey grinned from ear to ear. "Really? Awww! I'm definitely going!"

Leo looked at him like he was crazy. "Uh, no, you're not."

There was now a mixture of shock and hurt in Mikey's expression. "What?! Why?!"

"Going into space on your own to fight a giant monster?" Leo crossed his arms and shook his head. "No way."

"Awww, come on, Leo!" Mikey whined. "I haven't seen the Guardians in a long time! They're my friends!"

"And I'm your oldest brother _and_ clan master," Leo said sternly. "And I forbid you from going. Besides, you can't expect me to just stay here on Earth and not worry that you'll get eaten or blown up."

Mikey thought about this for a moment, then the light bulb turned on. "I got it! You could come with me!" he said with a big grin.

Leo blinked. "I-I...what?"

Mikey eagerly nodded. "Yeah! You go to space with us so that you can keep an eye on me and not have to worry!"

"Mikey, I...I can't just leave Raph and Donnie-"

"Sure you can!" They both turned around to see their brothers standing at the other end of the building. Raph grinned as he stepped forward. "Donnie and I can take care of things while you're gone!"

"When did you guys get here?" Leo asked them.

"A couple of minutes ago," Donnie said and pointed to Dey's ship. "We saw the ship and followed it here. Raph's right, we can handle it. It's not like we'd be completely helpless with you."

"Yeah," Raph nodded in agreement. "I'm actually offended that you don't trust us."

"Guys, it's not that I don't trust you," Leo insisted. "It's just-"

"We get it," Raph gave him a smug grin. "You're a worrisome mother hen. But really, we got this. Go on your space trip with Mikey and have fun."

Leo still wasn't convinced. "Look, I hate being the bad guy but I can't-"

Mikey grabbed his shoulders from behind and leaned forward to whisper in his ear, "We could use a Captain Ryan in our group."

Leo's eyes instantly became big and sparkly. Okay, now he was convinced.

* * *

They decided to meet Dey again in the park after they had packed up for the trip, bringing with them essentials such as weapons and a First Aid kit, and nonessentials such as comic books and other stuff that mostly came from Mikey's room. Even on their way back to the ship, Leo continued to lay out the rules to Raph and Donnie, expecting his more responsible and mature younger brothers to follow them while he was gone.

"And don't forget to polish the blades every afternoon. And clean out the fridge of any outdated foods. And don't leave the water running in the sink like you did last time. And don't-"

"LEO!" Mikey impatiently waited in the ship for his eldest brother. He was so ready to go into space again and reunite with his secondary family. He just wished that Leo would hurry up. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Yeah, I'm on a pretty tight schedule here," Dey told him as he pointed to the watch on his wrist. "I ain't got all day, you know."

"Right, sorry!" Leo apologized before turning back to Raph and Donnie. "I'm really counting on you guys to keep things in order while I'm gone."

"You won't be disappointed, Leo," Donnie gently assured him.

"Yeah, now get going already!" Raph roughly but playfully shoved him toward the ship.

Leo picked up his backpack of supplies and hurried to the ship, but before he got in, he turned to give one more look at his brothers, who smiled and waved at him to go. Once everyone was on board, they took off into the night sky at full speed, and Raph and Donnie watched as the golden light of the ship's rocket got smaller until it disappeared.

Raph turned to his immediate younger brother and grinned mischievously. "Party in the sewers?"

Donnie grinned back and nodded as he pulled out his T-phone. "I'll text everyone an invitation."

They laughed and whooped as they gave each other a high-three.

 **And so the epic story begins! Next chapter, Mikey reunites with the Guardians! And meets baby Groot! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**IMPORTANT NEWS! James Gunn, the director of the GOTG films, has been wrongly fired by Disney for STUPID reasons. We need to sign a petition to save his career and let him direct more GOTG films, which I have already done. Please sign it!**

 **Also, to Guest David, please try not to overwhelm the review box with your long notes. I appreciate and understand your passion, but please understand, it's for reviews only. And Shinigamilover2 wanted me to tell you that he feels the same way.**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

"Ugh, when is he going to _get here_ already?" Rocket growled impatiently as he continued to fidget in his chair. Little Groot sat in his lap and was nibbling on one of the leaves on his arm. The raccoon noticed this and gently pulled Groot's arm away from his mouth. "Hey, I told you to quit doing that."

The Guardians all sat in the waiting room of the Nova Corps headquarters, waiting for the arrival of the mutant Turtle they came to love as a little brother. Sure they had some thrilling adventures since the epic battle on Xandar, but it just wasn't the same without the hyperactive, pizza-loving ninja. So when they were assigned to protect the Anulax batteries from the Abilisk, they begged Nova Prime to send someone to pick up their friend.

"He'll be here," Gamora assured him. Peter Quill, or "Star-Lord" as he preferred to be called, stood next to her, listening to his tunes on his Walkman.

"Yeah, what makes you so sure?" Rocket mumbled, looking a little guilty. "I yelled at him before he left."

Drax, who also sat in a chair, nodded in agreement. "And you also called him a 'freak'. And you tried to shoot him in the face."

Rocket shot him an annoyed "Really?" look.

"You know Mikey," Gamora said with a little smile. "He's very forgiving, and he won't let us down. He'll show up."

At that moment, Mikey peeked his head in and nearly squealed when he saw his friends. Gamora And Quill had their backs to him, so with a mischievous smile, he snuck up behind him and slowly reached for Quill's headphones. Then he snatched them off, causing the human to jump in surprise and turn around. Mikey put them on his head and listened to the lyrics of the song that was playing.

 _..._ _time of your life_

 _Ooh, see that girl, watch that scene_

 _Digging the dancing queen_

Mikey looked up at Quill and grinned. "'Dancing Queen', huh?"

Quill only chuckled. "ABBA was my Mom's favorite group." Mikey gave him back the headphones and they did a bro fist. "It's great to see you again, man."

Gamora was the next to greet Mikey and she gave him a warm hug. "We've really missed you, Mikey."

Before Mikey could even say something to her, a pair of strong hands ripped him out of her arms. Drax laughed heartily as he pressed Mikey's face against his rock-hard bare chest and gave him a bear hug. "Oh, words cannot describe how much I have missed you, Michelangelo!"

Mikey yelled out words that were muffled by Drax's chest, and when the burly man squeezed harder, a cracking sound was heard by everyone in the room.

"Dude, I think you're crushing _and_ smothering him," Quill told Drax.

"Oh." Drax quickly let go of Mikey, who let out a wheezing gasp and rubbed his now aching neck. "Sorry. I couldn't control myself."

Rocket put Groot down on the chair and hesitantly joined the group. He nervously wringed his hands as he approached Mikey, and with his tiny finger, he tapped the Turtle on his shell. When Mikey turned around, the raccoon gave him a shy smile. "Uh, hey, kid."

Mikey smiled warmly at Rocket and grabbed him in a hug, lifting the raccoon off the ground. "Hey, Rocket. Did you miss me, bro?"

"Eh, a little," Rocket fibbed, thankful that the Turtle couldn't see the tears that were building up in his brown eyes.

Quill smiled. "He's lying. He totally missed you. You should've seen him begging Nova Prime to let you come-"

"Zip it, Quill!" Rocket snapped.

Mikey chuckled and put Rocket down, then he noticed something small sitting on one of the chairs. It almost looked like...

He gasped when he recognized the tiny creature. "Groot...?" he whispered.

"I Am Groot," the wooden baby squeaked as he waved his hand.

"GROOT!" Mikey ran to the chair and picked up little Groot, snuggling him against his freckled cheek. "Groot, you're back!" he tearfully laughed, his heart filled with joy and relief. "And..." He looked down at the creature and gently poked him in the chest. "And you're soooooo cute and tiny! Awwww, I could just eat you up!" He playfully nuzzled Groot's head with his beak, all the while cooing at him. "Yes, I could! Yes, I could!"

Groot pushed Mikey's nose back and frowned at him. "I Am Groot."

"Awww, I love you too, Groot."

Rocket chuckled and shook his head. "Uh, no, he said, 'Don't call me cute.' He doesn't like to be called that."

"Oh, sorry," Mikey apologized to Groot, the huge grin still on his face. "I'm not gonna lie, though. You _are_ cute."

Leo decided to walk into the room after Mikey said his hellos to all his friends and cleared his throat, catching their attention. "Um, hi," he said with an awkward smile.

"Oh, hey," Quill gave him a friendly grin. "You're Mikey's brother, right?"

"Yeah," Leo took the captain's hand and shook it. "Leonardo, or you can just call me Leo."

"Whoa, whoa, wait, what's Fanboy doing here?" Rocket asked Mikey.

Leo raised a confused eye ridge. "'Fanboy?'"

"Leo's coming with us!" Mikey happily announced. "So he doesn't have to worry about me back on Earth."

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have one more person on board," Quill said with a shrug. "The more, the better. Now that the crew's all here, let's get going. And after we've collected our payment, we'll all go to Xandar's best bar to celebrate the reunion. My treat."

"Meaning I end up paying for it, right?" Rocket grumbled as he took Groot from Mikey and placed him on his shoulder.

"But we're not old enough to drink yet," Leo said, referring to himself and Mikey, who roughly nudged him in the shoulder.

"Dude, quit cramping our style," Mikey whispered to him, embarassed by his brother's mother henning.

"Yes!" Drax laughed, pulling out one of his knives. "I look forward to slaying the battery-eating beast!"

"You look forward to slaying anything," Rocket sassed.

"And you like to blow up people," Gamora retorted, earning a dirty look from the raccoon.

As the entire crew headed toward the exit, Leo pulled Mikey aside and whispered, "Mikey, why did he call me 'Fanboy'?"

"Oh, uh, heh," Mikey rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. "I may had told him about your...obession with _Space Heroes._ "

Leo sighed and rolled his eyes. "Of course." Great. The Guardians of the galaxy thought he was a nerd instead of a cool leader.

* * *

They were now on one of the main planets of the Sovereign solar system, and they stood on the platform of a high tower that served as the planet's main power source using the Anulax batteries. The batteries themselves were stored in large conductors that encircled them. The skies were dark and stormy, with lighting constantly flashing and thunder roaring, but not a single raindrop fell down upon then, which was very odd. The longer they waited for the monster to arrive, the more anxious the Turtle brothers became. They both wore Aero-Rigs, which were metal harnesses with back-mounted jets and of Rocket's design.

"Showtime, a-holes!" Quill announced as he looked down at his tracking device, which was beeping. "It will be here any minute."

Mikey and Leo simultaneously reached for their weapons, preparing for battle.

"Which will be its loss," Gamora remarked as she loaded her large gun.

"I thought your thing was a sword?" Quill asked her.

"We've been hired to stop an inter-dimensional beast from feeding on those batteries, and I'm gonna stop it with a sword?" she asked him rhetorically.

Leo heard her and slowly moved his hands away from his swords. "Um, does anybody have a gun I could borrow?"

Gamora tossed him a smaller gun, then she turned to Drax, who was still bare-chested. "Drax, why aren't you wearing one of Rocket's Aero-Rigs?"

"It hurts," Drax simply said.

"It hurts?" Gamora repeated with a raised eye ridge.

He looked at her a bit embarrassed before answering softly, "I have sensitive nipples."

Rocket, who had been working on a set of speakers, immediately broke into laughter and mocked Drax. "'My nipples hurt! Oh, goodness me!'"

"What about him?!" Drax asked the others angrily as he pointed to Rocket. "What's he doing?"

"I'm finishing this so we can listen to tunes while we work," Rocket said as he gestured to the speakers.

"How is that a priority?"

"Blame Quill! He's the one who loves music so much!"

Quill shook his head. "No, I actually agree with Drax on this. That's hardly important right now."

"What?!" Mikey gasped dramatically, then pointed an accusing finger at the human. "You speak blasphemy! Of course we need music! It pumps the soul! Who are you and what have you done with the real Peter Quill?"

"He's got a point, Mikey," Leo said as Gamora showed him how to use his gun. "This is a matter of life and death here-"

ZAP!

Leo had accidentally pushed the button to fire and a laser blast nearly missed Rocket's foot by an inch. The raccoon yelped and jumped before glaring at the Turtle, who grinned at him sheepishly and apologetically. Mikey facepalmed in embarrassment.

"You sure it was a good idea to give that putz a gun?" Rocket gruffly asked Gamora.

Just then a couple of Orlonis scurried past Rocket and Mikey's feet as Groot kicked and threw punches at them. The tiny creature looked up at them and stood with his chest puffed out in an attempt to look tough. "I Am Groot."

"They were not looking at you funny," Rocket scolded him.

Suddenly a booming sound provoked everyone to look up at the sky. The clouds parted as a bright, colorful portal opened up, and crawling out of it was a huge, terrifying creature with tentacles and multiple rows of sharp teeth. It let out a roar as it plummeted straight toward them.

"Holy Chalupa," Mikey gulped.

"Well, that's intense," Rocket muttered fearfully.

Drax drew his knives out and charged at the beast with a war cry as soon as it landed on the platform. Everyone else followed suit, except for Mikey and Groot, who stayed next to the speakers. Mikey didn't want to leave baby Groot's side, afraid that the little guy might get hurt in the midst of all the chaos. Groot connected two cables, which turned on the speakers, and to Mikey's surprise and delight, "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra started playing.

 _Sun is shinin' in the sky_

 _There ain't a cloud in sight_

 _It's stopped rainin', everybody's in a play_

 _And don't you know_

 _It's a beautiful new day, hey hey_

When Groot began to dance to the music, Mikey pulled out his T-Phone and hit the record button. He giggled at Groot's cuteness, completely oblivious to the intense battle that was taking place all around them. At one point, Quill landed on his face next to them, and as he struggled to get back up, he was shocked to see Mikey just standing there and recording Groot's dance instead of helping them.

"What are you doing?!" he yelled right before he was knocked away by one of the Abilisk's tentacles.

But Mikey didn't even hear him, too distracted by Groot's adorableness. He followed Groot wherever he went, and he found himself dancing to the music as well. It was pretty catchy after all.

Meanwhile, as Leo fired at the Abilisk airborne with the others, he looked down and saw Mikey dancing with Groot. His jaw dropped and made a dash toward his brother. "Mikey! Focus-!" He grunted as a tentacle smashed into him and pinned him to the ground.

Groot suddenly got distracted by another Orloni and chased after it. He extended his hand into vines that attached themselves to the rodent, and Groot rode on it like a cowboy on a horse.

"Whoa, whoa, Groot! Wait!" Mikey ran after them all across the platform, narrowly dodging all the tentacles and colorful yet deadly fire blasts that came their way. The Orloni had finally managed to throw Groot off, but Mikey caught him and landed facefirst on the floor.

He groaned as he let go of Groot, but after the little tree boy merely brushed himself off and resumed the cute dance, Mikey quickly forgot the pain and continued to record him.

This was definitely going on YouTube.

 _Mister Blue, you did it right_

 _But soon comes Mister Night creepin' over_

 _Now his-_

Unfortunately, the dance sequence came to an abrupt end after Drax crashed right into the speakers and destroyed them.

"Ohhhhh, dude!" Mikey groaned, even though he knew that it wasn't at all Drax's fault.

Groot wasn't as forgiving and attacked Drax by whipping his vines at him, though it felt more taps to the much bigger and more muscular man.

Drax got back on his feet and brushed off the pieces of metal that stuck to his skin. Then he got an idea as he watched the Abilisk fight off the others. "The beast's hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside!" He sneered as he raised his knives. "I must cut through it from the inside."

Mikey looked over at Drax. "What?"

Drax laughed as he charged at the Abilisk once again. Mikey called after him, but he ignored the young Turtle and took one big leap toward monster just as it opened its horrifying mouth. Mikey screamed in horror as it clamped its jaws shut and swallowed his friend whole.

Quill, Leo, and Gamora all rushed to Mikey's side after they witnessed what had just happened. "What is he doing?!" Quill yelled, completely flabbergasted.

Mikey panicked as he tried to explain. "He-He-He said that-that the skin is too thick to be cut from the-the outside so-so he-!"

"So he's gonna try to cut it from the inside?!" Leo finished for him.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Quill said. "Skin is the same level of thickness from the inside as from the outside!"

"No DUH, dude!" Mikey yelled. "Even _I_ know that!"

Leo then spotted a wound on the Abilisk's neck, which could be a penetrable area on its impenetrable skin. "Wait, there's a cut on its neck!" he yelled as he pointed to it. "See?"

Quill saw it and quickly came up with a plan. "Okay, you two fire at its weak spot!" he ordered Leo and Gamora. "Mikey! Rocket! Get it to look up!" He and Mikey flew toward the creature and started to taunt it together.

"Hey, you giant Sea-Monkey!" Quill yelled as he fired his guns at the monster. "Up here!"

"I use your cousins as toppings for my pizzas!" Mikey laughed, hiting it on the nose with his nunchucks.

Rocket joined in on the action, but his own gun was soon destroyed by the Abilisk's fire breath, leaving him defenseless (and useless).

Down below, Leo fired his gun multiple times at the distracted beasts, but he would always miss the target. Guns just weren't his specialty. Gamora prepared to shoot, but her gun only clicked and beep, and she tossed it aside in frustration.

Leo figured that she could hit that injury with her better aim and offered her his gun. "Here, take mine."

But Gamora unsheathed her sword and ran toward the creature. She jumped on a few tentacles before making one big leap and aiming her sword at the cut. She plunged her weapon right into the wound, and as she dragged herself down to its belly, yellow-green blood squirted out of the large laceration that she was making. The Abilisk squealed and writhed before it finally dropped to the floor dead.

Leo stared for a moment before he slumped his shoulders and dropped his gun. "Well, _I_ could've done that," he pouted.

Mikey sighed in relief as he landed on his feet, but then he remembered that a certain someone was still inside the monster's body. "Drax!" He ran to the dead creature and yelled into its mouth, "Drax! Can you hear me, dude?!"

Just then, Drax's head popped out of the Abilisk's wound and he gasped for air. He crawled his way out and dropped to the floor, completely drenched in goo. But then he started laughing triumphantly and raised his knives over his head. "YES! I have single-handedly vanquished the beast!"

Everyone just looked at him annoyed and unamused, and Groot threw a pebble at him, which bounced off his head.

Drax looked down at him confused. "What?"

...

After cleaning themselves up and taking a break for a few minutes, the group checked on the conductors. All of the batteries were in tact.

"What are they called again?" Drax asked as he cleaned his face with a towel.

"Anulax batteries," Quill answered as he put his leather coat back on.

Drax nodded and looked at the glowing batteries in wonder and amazement. "Harbulary batteries."

Quill gave him a look. "That's _nothing_ like what I just said. But they're worth thousands of units apiece which is why the Sovereign hired us to protect them."

"Why are they worth so much?" Mikey asked as he picked off one of the batteries and studied it. "Couldn't be any better than Energizer or Duracell."

"They are among the most powerful energy sources in the universe," Gamora explained. "With only a handful, you could have enough power to light up an entire city."

Mikey's eyes went big. "Whoa...that's so cool!"

"Yeah," Leo took the battery out of his brother's hand and carefully put it back in place. "Which is why we shouldn't mess with them."

"So what are these Sovereign guys like?" Mikey asked the others.

"Well, Dey said that they are a highly advanced and very rich bunch," Quill said. "But he added that they are also conceited douchebags. Careful what you say around these folks. They're easily offended. The cost of transgression is death."

* * *

"We thank you, Guardians, for putting your lives on the line," High Priestess Ayesha, supreme ruler of the Sovereign, said to the crew.

The Sovereign were the most beautiful people Mikey and Leo had ever seen. Their very skin, hair, and even eyes were a magnificent golden color. They wore elegant clothing that was also gold and their frames were thin and perfect. But they had an aura about them that felt...arrogant.

Ayesha continued to address the Guardians from her throne. "We could not risk the lives of our own Sovereign citizens. Every citizen is born exactly as designed by the community. Impeccable, both physically and mentally. We control the DNA of our progeny, germinating them in birthing pods."

Mikey blinked in confusion. "Huh? Could you repeat that?"

"I guess I prefer to make people the old-fashioned way," Quill said to her.

An amused smile formed on Ayesha's golden face. "Well, perhaps someday, you could give me a history lesson...in the archaic ways of our ancestors. For academic purposes."

Mikey nudged Leo and whispered to him, "Dude, is that priestess seriously trying to flirt with Quill?"

Leo shrugged. "I'm not sure."

Quill blushed a little, but he tried to maintain a straight face. "I would be honored, yes. In the name of research...I think that could be pretty, uh...repulsive. I'm not into that kind of casual..."

Before the conversation could get any more awkward, a slightly jealous Gamora stepped forward. "Oh, please. Your people promised something in exchange for our services. Bring it and we shall gladly be on our way."

Ayeshia raised a single finger, which signaled for two Sovereign soldiers to come forward and bring a cloaked person in cuffs to the front. They roughly shoved the prisoner to her knees and pulled back the hood, revealing her face to everyone in the room.

Mikey gasped softly. He recognized that blue-skinned lady with metal plates on her head and left eye. It was Gamora's crazy sister, Nebula.

Shivers went down Leo's spine as Nebula slowly raised her head to Gamora and gave her a glare that burned with so much hate and contempt. He had seen that kind of look before; it was the same look that Oroku Saki would give Splinter every time they met face to face.

Gamora only stared back at her coldly. Neither sister said a word to the other.

Quill tried to break the tension and awkward silence. "Family reunion, yaaaay," he said softly with a grin.

"I understand she is your sister?" Ayeshia asked Gamora.

"She's worth no more to me than the bounty due for her on Xandar," Gamora calmly replied as she pulled Nebula to her feet.

Ouch. Mikey and Leo both winched at her harsh words.

Ayeshia stood up from her throne and folded her hands. "Our soldiers apprehended her attempting to steal the batteries. Do with her as you please."

And with that, Gamora dragged a struggling Nebula toward the exit. Leo watched them leave and a felt a twinge of sadness for the two siblings. It couldn't have been easy for Gamora to turn her own sister in.

"We thank you, High Priestess Ayeshia," Quill bowed to her before following after Gamora.

But Ayeshia stopped him with an unexpected question. "What is _your_ heritage, Mr. Quill?"

"My mother is from Earth," Quill said.

"And your father?"

Mikey curiously turned to the human. During their first adventure together, Quill had told him about the death of his mother and his abduction from Earth. But he never once mentioned his father.

Quill paused before he answered with a shrug, "He ain't from Missouri. That's all I know."

"Wait, you're from Missouri?" Mikey asked him. "Whoa, that caught me off guard. You seemed more like a Montana guy to me.

"I see it within you," Ayeshia said to Quill. "An unorthodox genealogy. A hybrid that seems particularly...reckless."

Mikey didn't completely understand what she had just said, but judging by the hurt and slightly angered look on Quill's face, it wasn't very polite. And nobody insulted his friends and got away with it. So the youngest Turtle bravely took a step forward and pointed at the snooty Priestess. "Guess they were right about you people: you ARE conceited douchebags!"

Gasps and mutterings filled the room, and Rocket clamped a paw over his mouth to stifle his laughter. An angry soldier stomped toward the group with his gun raised.

Leo ran to his brother's side and stood before Ayeshia, who looked infuriated. "Uh, for-forgive him, High Priestess," he chuckled nervously. "He was only joking."

But Mikey shook his head. "No, I wasn't-"

Leo quickly clamped his hand over Mikey's mouth. "Shut up," he whispered harshly. "Let's go." He grabbed Mikey by the arm and pulled him along as the crew headed towards the exit.

Quill gave Ayeshia one last dirty look before leaving with the others.

"You're lucky they didn't kill us," Leo softly scolded his brother. "And after we get back home, I'm washing your mouth out with soap."

"What?" Mikey whined out loud. "Raph says 'douchebag' all the time!"

"Shhh!" Leo shushed him. "That doesn't make it right!"

Drax and Rocket were ahead of them, whispering to each other, and when the raccoon showed the tattooed man something inside his small bag, the latter threw his head back and laughed. Rocket quickly shushed him with a smile on his face.

Mikey suddenly got a very bad feeling.


	3. Chapter 3

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 **WARNING: Adult humor in this chapter.**

As Rocket started up the ship, Mikey sat down in the pilot seat opposite to the raccoon's and let out a soft, blissful sigh. "Just like the good old days, right, Rocket?"

Rocket chuckled and nodded. "Yep. Really glad you join us on one more adventure, kid."

Mikey looked through his side window and down at the magnificent, golden city of the Sovereign as they got higher. "Bunch of snooty jerks," he grumbled. "Can't belleve they talked to Quill that way."

"You didn't even understand a word she said, did you?" Rocket asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Ummmm, no," Mikey sheepish admitted, "but I knew that she hurt Quill's feelings. Guess Casey was right: a turd made of gold is _still_ a turd."

"Ha! Got that right!" Rocket laughed. "By the way, what you did back there in the throne room was awesome. It was pretty ballsy and stupid, and I couldn't be more proud."

"Yeah, well, Leo wasn't too happy with me," Mikey sighed. "He seriously needs to lighten up more, but I guess it's not his fault. He has to look after us now that our Dad is gone, and that can be pretty stressful."

"Wait, I thought you went back to save your Dad?"

"We did..." Mikey felt the tears coming and blinked them back. "...only to lose him again."

"Well, sh**," Rocket cursed in a quiet, somber tone. He looked over at Mikey with sympathetic brown eyes. "I'm really sorry, Mike."

Mikey merely shrugged, when he felt something crawl up his shell. He turned his head and saw Groot standing on his shoulder. The little tree creature stared back at him with tiny black eyes before handing him a blue jellybean. It was comforting to know that Groot was still the same sweet and gentle giving tree that he befriended over a year ago.

The Turtle smiled at him as he took the tasty gift and plopped it into his mouth. "Thanks, Groot," he said as he chewed. "Hey, remember that time when you stuck your fingers up that blue guy's nose and lifted him, like, five feet off the ground? I bet his nose is still bent backwards." Groot just looked at him confused and tilted his head. "You know, back at the Kyln? Where we first met? You remember that...right?"

"Uh, kid?" Rocket said softly. "I hate to break it to ya, but he doesn't remember anything before Xandar."

"Wh...What...?" Mikey choked.

"The old Groot you knew is gone. The twig that we picked up grew into a whole different Groot. I guess you could say that he's...kinda Groot's baby."

Mikey felt his heart rip right in half at that very moment. Groot didn't even remember him nor the adventures they had together. "So Groot's really gone," he mumbled sadly.

He then felt Groot tug at the ends of his mask, undoing the mask in the process. When it fell off his face, Groot tried to put it over his own, but it was way too big for him, so he looked through one of the eyeholes and up at Mikey. The Turtle couldn't supress his laughter and instantly felt better. He knew right then that he already loved this new Groot and would protect him with his life.

"Alright, Groot, that's enough," Rocket chuckled as he reached over to take the mask from the little tree. He looked up at Mikey and grinned as he gave it back to him. "He's getting more and more curious. Sometimes it gets him into trouble."

"I'll bet," Mikey laughed as he put his mask back on and set Groot down in his lap. "Hey, uh, Rocket? What was in that bag you showed to Drax earlier?"

"Huh? Oh, _that_ bag." Rocket looked over his seat, as though to make sure that they were alone in the cockpit. "Can you keep a secret?" he spoke very softly to Mikey.

Mikey raised an eye ridge, not liking where this was going. "Uh...sure?"

Rocket leaned over closer to Mikey and whispered to him, "I bought some Kree porn before we left Xandar."

"What?!" Mikey stuck his tongue out in disgust. "Awwww, _sick_ , dude!"

"What?" Rocket shrugged his shoulders. "I live with four guys and no chicks! I say four 'cause Gamora doesn't count."

"That is so gross!" Mikey groaned as he shook his head.

"Oh, like _you_ never masturbate?" Rocket huffed.

"Master Bait?" Mikey scratched his head in confusion. "What's that shop in Florida got to do with this?"

The raccoon was now just as confused as the Turtle was. "Uhh, where's Florida?"

...

Meanwhile, at the rear of the ship, Leo tried contacting his brothers back on Earth to check on them, but neither one of them ever answered their T-phones. Sighing in frustration, his shoved his phone back into his belt when he heard some footsteps.

Gamora was dragging her sister Nebula to a metal post and cuffed her to it. The blue woman noticed a bowl of strange-looking fruit next to her.

"I'm hungry," she hissed. "Hand me some of that yaro fruit."

But Gamora just ignored her and walked away. Leo couldn't believe how cruel she was acting toward her own sister, and he felt a little sorry for Nebula, so he walked over to the bowl and offered a fruit to her. Nebula looked at him with surprised dark eyes.

He smiled at her shyly. "Hi. I'm Leo."

Gamora saw what he was doing and snatched the fruit out of his hand. "It's not ripe yet," she sternly said as she put it back in the bowl. "And she's a prisoner, not a guest."

"But she's also your sister," Leo defended as he pointed to Nebula.

"It doesn't matter that she's family," Gamora firmly stated as she looked directly at Nebula. "She's still a criminal."

"I'm a criminal?" Nebula spat, her voice dripping with venom. "You left me there while you stole that stone for yourself. And yet here you stand...a hero. I will be free of these shackles soon enough and I will kill you. I swear."

But Gamora was unfazed by her sister's threat and shook her head. "No. You're gonna live out the rest of your days in a prison on Xandar..." She leaned in closer to Nebula's face and taunted her. "...wishing you could."

Nebula tugged at her cuffs with a snarl on her face.

Suddenly the alarms sounded off and Gamora hurried to other side of ship. Leo paused to look back at Nebula sympathetically before he followed Gamora to the cockpit. Everyone else was already there, including Mikey, who now stood behind Rocket's seat with Groot on his shoulder. Quill had taken the other pilot seat and was looking at the readings on the control panel.

"What's going on?" Leo asked as he walked over to Mikey and stood next to him.

"For some reason, we've got a Sovereign fleet approaching from the rear," Quill announced.

"Why would they do that?" Gamora questioned.

"Probably because Rocket stole some of their batteries," Drax suggested.

All eyes were now on the furry little pilot.

"YOU **WHAT**?!" Mikey screamed at him.

Rocket glared over at Drax. The cat was out of the bag now. Or in this case, the raccoon. "DUDE!" he yelled angrily.

Drax immediately regretted opening his mouth. "Right. He didn't steal some of those," he lied, even though it was already too late. "I don't know why they're after us. What a mystery this is."

"You told me it was porn!" Mikey yelled as he slapped Rocket at the back of his head.

"Well, obviously, I lied, okay?!" Rocket shouted. "There, I said it!"

A laser blast was fired from behind the Milano and missed them by a few inches. Many more came right after that, and Quill quickly took control of the ship and made a sharp turn away from the firing drone ships. Like an swarm of angry bees, they all chased after the Milano.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Quill screamed as he struggled to avoid the oncoming blasts.

"Dude, they were really easy to steal!" Rocket said.

" _That's_ your defense?" Gamora scoffed.

"Come on! You saw how the High Priestess talked down to us! Now I'm teaching her a lesson!"

"Baloney!" Mikey yelled. "You just want to sell those batteries for a lot of money! You haven't changed one bit, Rocket!"

Leo joined in on the bickering and pointed his finger at Rocket. "You put my brother in danger because of your greed!"

"You wanna keep your finger, Captain Nerd?!" Rocket threatened the older Turtle. "Then put it away!"

"Can we put the bickering on hold until _after_ we survive this massive space battle?!" Gamora snapped.

Another fleet of Sovereign ships suddenly appeared in front of the Milano. "More incoming!" Quill announced.

A sinister smile was now on Rocket's face. "Good! I wanna kill some guys!" He let out a battle cry as he fired like a maniac at the enemy ships, destroying some of them.

"You're not killing anyone," Gamora told him. "All those ships are remotely piloted."

"Of course," Leo rolled his eyes, recalling what the High Priestess had told them earlier. "'We can't risk the lives of our own Sovereign citizens'. But wait, if they destroy us, they'll destroy their batteries. They won't risk that, either, since they're too valuable. Maybe if we'd just return the batteries and apologize-"

BAM!

The whole ship shook and rattled after it took a hit. The Sovereign's intent was made very clear: they were going to destroy the Milano and everyone onboard.

"Okay," Leo's voice cracked with fear. "Never mind."

"Quill, please tell me you got a plan!" Mikey begged the captain as he gripped the back of Rocket's seat even tighter. "Or 12% of plan! ANYTHING!"

"You freaking out is not helping things, Mike!" Quill said to the panicky Turtle, then he asked Gamora, "What's the nearest habitable planet?"

From her seat, Gamora quickly looked through the jump points on her monitor and found one. "It's called Berhert."

"How many jumps?"

"Only one. But the access point is 47 clicks away. And you have to go through that quantum asteroid field."

Before them was a large asteroid field, but instead of just floating, the rocks would randomly disappear and reappear, making it even more dangerous and nearly impossible to get through.

Mikey gulped and lowered his head into his shell a bit. " _That_ asteroid field?"

"Quill, to make it through that, you'd have to be the greatest pilot in the universe," Drax said.

Quill smiled confidently and nodded. "Lucky for us, I-"

"-I am," Rocket cut him off with a smugly grin and suddenly took control of the ship. Everyone held their breaths as the raccoon dove right into the field and narrowly dodged every asteroid that would appear out of nowhere. The Sovereign ships weren't as lucky and nearly every one of them gor destroyed by an asteroid.

At one point, Quill flipped his pilot switch back on and regained control of the ship.

"What are you doing?" Rocket asked him.

"I've been flying this rig since I was ten years old," Quill said.

"I was cybernetically engineered to pilot a spacecraft!"

"You were cybernetically engineered to be a _douchebag_!"

"Yeah!" Mikey shouted in agreement, which earned him a slap on the head and a disapproving look from Leo.

"Well, later on tonight, you're gonna be laying down in your bed and there's gonna be something squishy in your pillow case, and you're gonna be like, 'What's this?' and it's gonna be because I PUT A TURD IN THERE!" Rocket screamed before he flipped his pilot control back on.

Quill gave him a dagger stare. "You put your turd in my bed, I shave you."

"I'd like to see that!" Mikey laughed.

"Oh, it won't be _my_ turd," Rocket said with a grin. "It'll be Drax's."

At this, Drax threw his head back and laughed, finding it to be hilarious for some strange reason. "I have famously huge turds!"

Mikey joined in on the fun. "Oh, yeah? You haven't seen Leatherhead's turds! They're, like, the size of basketballs!"

"We're about to die and _this_ is what we're discussing?" Gamora snapped as she glared at both Drax and Mikey.

"Sorry," Mikey sheepishly said.

Quill and Rocket continued to fight over the control of the ship and couldn't focus on the asteroids.

"Son of a-!"

"Dude! Seriously!"

"Hey! Let me-!"

WHAM!

An asteroid smashed through the stern of the ship and took out a chunk of the rear. The Milano began to spin out of control as the all the air was sucked in through the hole. Everyone held onto their seats, but Groot lost his grip on Mikey's mask and was almost sucked out of the ship. Thankfully Leo caught him in time and held him close to his plastron.

Quill quickly punched in a code on his monitor and an energy field slid up in front of the hole, and as soon as it did the ship stopped spinning.

Leo let out a sigh of relief when he suddenly remembered that Nebula was downstairs. "Is Nebula okay?" he asked the crew.

 _"IDIOTS!"_ Nebula yelled to them from below.

"Yep," Mikey nodded. "She's okay."

"Well, that's what you get when Quill flies," Rocket said, trying to shift the blame onto the human.

Gamora growled in annoyance and anger as she threw a wrench right at Rocket. The raccoon cried out as it hit him on the head. "We still have a Sovereign craft behind us!" she yelled.

Sure enough, one solitary Sovereign ship continued to chase and fire at the Milano.

"Well, then let's blast it!" Leo shouted. "It's just one ship!"

"Can't! Our weapons are down!" Quill said.

Gamora looked down at her monitor. "Twenty clicks to the jump!" she announced.

Without saying a word, Drax all of a sudden climbed downstairs into the common area.

"Drax, where are you going?" Mikey asked the tattooed man.

Gamora instantly understood. "He's buying us some time."

The Sovereign ship managed to hit the right wing of the Milano and the impact caused Mikey to lose his grip on Rocket's seat and fall flat on his face. "OW!"

"Gamora, how much longer is this gonna take?!" Leo shouted as he helped Mikey up.

"Fifteen clips to the jump!" Gamora yelled.

Down in the lower part of the ship, Drax hooked a cable onto the belt of his pants and slapped a disk onto his back. The small device activated a force-field spacesuit that covered his entire body and would allow him to breathe in space. He then grabbed a large gun and pushed a button on the wall that activated a second force field between him and Nebula and deactivated the first one in front of the hole.

He jumped out and swung back and forth as the Milano made sharp turns to avoid the laser blasts and the asteroids. He aimed his gun at the enemy ship and shouted, "Die, spaceship!" With one blast of his weapon, the drone exploded into a ball of fire.

Quill finally managed to get the ship out of the asteroid field, but just when they thought they were out of harm's way, even more Sovereign ships came at them from both sides. They were now completely surrounded.

Quill's jaw dropped. "Son of a...! They went around the field!"

The ships all fired at the Milano and everyone watched in horror as the windows began to crack. It seemed like this was truly end.

But then, out of nowhere, two bright arrows of light dashed through the entire fleet and destroyed them, saving the Guardians from their doom. They all looked on in awe as the ships exploded like fireworks until there was nothing left but black smoke.

"One click!" Gamora announced.

Rocket looked through his side window and saw a small white figure heading in their direction. "What is that?"

Quill didn't even look his way and focused on the jump point before them, which was hexagonal in shape. "Who cares?! That's the jump point! Go! Go!"

But Mikey, being the curious Turtle that he was, looked out the window with Rocket. The figure turned out to be an oval shaped spacecraft, and standing on top of it was a man, who casually waved at them as they passed by.

"It's a guy," Rocket said, raising an eyebrow.

"A guy on a giant egg," Mikey said, nodding his head.

The Milano flew straight through the jump point, which led them straight to planet Berhert. As it entered the atmosphere, it began to smoke and fall apart. Quill struggled to maintain control of the ship, but it spiraled out of control and continued to dive straight toward the green forest below.

Gamora looked down at her monitor and gasped. "Oh, my god. He's still out there?" A surveillance video in the common area showed that Drax was still attached to the cable and was dangling outside the ship. She wasted no time in getting out of her seat and running downstairs to help him.

Leo took the opportunity to push Mikey into the empty seat and buckle him in before placing Groot in his hands and then shielding them both with his body.

Quill looked behind him and saw what the older Turtle was doing. "Leo, brace yourself!" the human shouted as the ship got closer to the trees. "PREPARE FOR A REALLY BAD LANDING!"

The ship smashed through the trees with full force, cracking the windows even more. Leo gritted his teeth and held onto the seat with all his might as the ship shook with every impact, determined to protect his brother from any harm.

After a few intense moments, the ship finally came to an abrupt stop. Once it did, Leo let go of the seat and fell on his butt, trying to calm his breathing and racing heart.

Mikey's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Dudes...that was so wicked," he whispered.

"I Am Groot," Groot said softly, his black eyes wide, too.

* * *

"LOOK AT THIS!" Gamora screamed as she looked at the wreckage.

Everyone was standing outside the damaged ship, all of them still a little shaken up and with minor injuries, but thankfully still alive.

Gamora continued to blow off steam. "Where is the other half of our ship?!"

" _My_ ship," Quill mumbled, rubbing the back of his aching neck.

"Either one of you could have gotten us through that field," Gamora pointed back and forth at Quill and Rocket, "had you flown with what's between your ears instead of what's between your legs!"

"Huh?" Mikey scratched his head. "Between their legs? I don't get it."

"If what's between my legs had a hand on it," Quill quietly said to Drax and the Turtles with a sly smile, "I guarantee I could have landed this ship with it."

Leo groaned and covered his face with his hand while Mikey tilted his head in confusion.

Gamora heard what he said and sighed as she placed her hands on her hips. "Peter, we almost died because of your arrogance."

"More like because HE stole the Anulax batteries!" Quill shouted in defense as he pointed to Rocket.

"They're called Harbulary batteries," Drax corrected him.

"NO, THEY'RE NOT!" Quill both yelled and laughed in disbelief at Drax's stupidity.

"Who cares what they're called?!" Leo snapped. "All I care about is how we're going to fix this mess! And I don't mean just the ship!" He turned to Rocket and narrowed his eyes into angry slits at the raccoon. "You just couldn't keep your paws off those batteries, could you?"

Rocket glared back at the Turtle. "You know why I did it, Fanboy? Hmmm?!"

Leo sighed and shook his head. "Again with the 'Fanboy'," he grumbled to himself.

"I did it because _I wanted to_!"

"Dick," Quill mumbled.

"What are we even talking about this for?" Rocket pointed to the sky with his tiny, clawed finger. "We just had a little man save us by blowing up fifty ships!"

"How little?" Drax asked.

"Well, I dunno." Rocket guessed the measurement with his finger and thumb. "Like this?"

"A little one-inch man saved us?" Gamora questioned with a skeptical look.

"No, it's true!" Mikey nodded his head. "I saw him, too! Or he could've been normal-sized and was riding a giant flying egg."

"A giant flying egg?" Quill chuckled. "Yeah, that makes more sense."

"Okay, first of all, it wasn't an egg," Rocket said, more to Mikey than anyone else. "It was clearly a ship. And second, if he got closer, I'm sure he would be much larger."

"Yeah, that's how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon," Quill told him.

"DON'T CALL ME A RACCOON!" Rocket bellowed.

"I'm sorry," Quill apologized. "I took it too far. I meant 'trash panda'."

Rocket paused, not sure how to take this. He turned to Leo and Mikey, who were more familiar with Terran insults and vocabulary. "Is that better?" he asked them.

Both brothers looked at each other, hesitant to answer that question.

"Uhhh..." Leo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Uhhh...no, dude, it's not," Mikey finally answered.

"It's actually worse," Leo said.

Mikey nodded. "Much worse."

The fur on Rocket's tail puffed up in anger and he leapt right at Quill with a growl. "WHY, YOU SON OF A-!"

As Quill struggled to keep Rocket off of him, Nebula lifted her head to the sky and saw the same oval-shaped ship from before coming down toward them. "Someone followed you through the jump point!"

Everyone else immediately drew out their weapons and they all formed a tight circle with their backs to each other.

"Set me free," Nebula insisted. "You'll need my help."

"I'm not a fool, Nebula," Gamora said, her gaze never leaving the strange spacecraft.

"You are a fool if you deprive yourself a hand in combat."

"You'll attack me the moment I let you go."

"No, I won't."

"You'd think an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie," Quill muttered, earning a dirty look from Nebula.

"Dude, I know, right?" Mikey said to the human. "You should meet _our_ supervillains."

"I bet it's the one-inch man!" Drax said rather excitedly.

The ship landed softly on the ground with a low hum and the crew cautiously approached it. A large orange window suddenly disintegrated as a man with a cape and woman in a tight green suit stepped out to meet them. The man seemed like a normal human being with wavy grey hair and a beard and looked to be in his late fifties or early sixties.

The younger woman, on the other hand, was clearly not human. She had shoulder-length black hair, but long antennae protruded from her forehead. Also, her eyes were very large and dark, almost like a bug's eyes. For some reason, she seemed timid and nervous with her hands folded in front of her, occasionally glancing at the man next to him.

The man looked directly at Quill and smiled. "After all these years, I've found you."

"And who the hell are you?" Quill asked, not at all recognizing this stranger, but something about him felt familiar.

The stranger chuckled softly. "I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious. My name is Ego...and I'm your Dad, Peter."

Quill was absolutely shocked. His Dad? The one who was supposed to come for him over twenty years ago? The so-called "angel" whom his mother fell so much in love with? This had to be a trick...right?

Everyone else was just as stunned as he was, and only Mikey broke the silence with a long and loud, "Whaaaaaaaaa?!"


	4. Chapter 4

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

"I hired Yondu to pick you up after your mother passed away," Ego explained to Quill as the whole group sat around a fire and ate dinner, which was some kind of blue jello in a bowl. Leo and Mikey instead ate the snacks that they packed and brought with them. "But instead of returning you, Yondu kept you. I have no clue as to why."

"Well, I'll tell you why," Quill said. "Because I was a skinny kid who could squeeze into places adult couldn't. It made it easier for thievin'."

"Well, I've been trying to track you down ever since," Ego said softly as he ate another spoonful of his meal.

"Um, Mr. Ego dude?" Mikey raised his hand. "We totally owe you for saving us and all, but how do we know for sure that you're _really_ Quill's Dad and not some imposter?"

"Mikey!" Leo scolded him. "Don't be rude."

"No, I'm with Mikey," Quill said as he eyed Ego suspiciously. "I'm finding this hard to believe, myself."

Ego slowly nodded his head, not the least bit offended, but rather a little saddened. "That's understandable. After all, I've never been there for you up until now. I hate to admit it, but I've been a neglectful father."

"I thought Yondu was your father?" Drax said to Quill. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.

"What? We've been together this whole time and you thought Yondu was my actual blood relative?" Quill asked him incredulously.

"You look exactly alike."

"Dude, they look _nothing_ alike!" Mikey said, remembering the blue-skinned leader of the Ravagers who tried to take the Infinity Stone.

"One's _blue_!" Rocket pointed out.

But Drax just nodded and gestured to Quill with his spoon, as if to say, "See the resemblance?".

"No, he's not my father!" Quill said. "Yondu was the guy who abducted me, beat the crap out of me so I could learn to fight and kept me in terror by threatening to eat me."

"EAT you?!" Ego shouted in disbelief. "Oh, that son of a bitch!"

"How'd you locate us now?" Gamora asked him.

"Well, even where I reside, out past the edge of what's known, we've heard tell about the man they call 'Star-Lord'," he said as he looked at his son with pride before standing up. "What say we head out there right now? Your associates are welcome, even the triangle-faced monkey and grotesque lizards."

Rocket, Mikey and Leo all looked at the man shocked and offended.

"I promise you," Ego continued, "it's unlike any other place you've ever seen. And there, I can explain your very special heritage. Finally get to be the father I've always wanted to be." He then paused for a moment before saying, "Excuse me. Gotta take a whiz."

Quill watched as Ego walked toward a tree and shook his head. "I'm not buying it," he said quietly to the others.

"Let's go take a walk," Gamora said. The two then go up and walked together into the dark woods, leaving the rest at the campfire.

The girl with the antennae turned to Drax. "I am Mantis," she said as she smiled at him, although it was a very weird and forced smile, kind of like the one a dog would make right before it sneezed.

Drax looked at her confused. "What are you doing?"

"Smiling. I hear it is the thing to do to make people like you."

Drax shook his head and went back to eating. "Not if you do it like that," he told her.

Her "smile" instantly dropped. "Oh. I was raised alone on Ego's planet. I do not understand the intricacies of social interaction."

"That's okay," Mikey said to her. "Neither does our brother Donnie. I'm Mikey, by the way." He got up from his log and walked over to the young woman, extending his hand out to her.

Mantis didn't understand and looked at his hand like it was a foreign object.

"It's okay, just take my hand," Mikey instructed, which she reluctantly did, and then he gently shook her hand. "It's called a handshake. It's the first step in making friends."

A pleased, genuine smile formed on her lips as she enthusiastically returned the handshake. "Oh, I like it very much. And I like you."

Mikey beamed at her. It's always nice to make new friends.

She then glanced over at Rocket, who was licking his paws and giving himself a bath. "Can I pet your puppy?" she asked Mikey. "It is adorable."

"Huh? Oh, you think that he's..." Mikey giggled and shook his head. "He's not a puppy. And he doesn't like to be-"

"Go ahead," Drax suddenly said, a mischievous grin on his face. "He likes it."

Mikey turned to Drax and gave him a "Seriously?' look.

Mantis reached over to pet Rocket, but the second her fingers touched his fur, the raccoon snapped at her with a growl. Mantis screamed and retracted her hand in time, while Mikey winced at the clicking sound Rocket's teeth made.

Drax threw his head back and laughed hysterically. "That is called a practical joke!" he told the confused Mantis, who started to laugh herself.

Mikey looked at Drax unamused and sat back down next to Leo. "No, dude, that's a cruel prank," he grumbled.

Leo looked up at Nebula, who sat directly across from him. She hadn't said a word since Ego's arrival and just stared down at her feet for hours. He grabbed a bag of chips and walked over to her, and when she lifted her head up to him, he smiled and offered the bag to her. "Lays?"

Nebula just gave glared at him.

The Turtle sighed and sat down next to her. "I know you don't trust me, Nebula, but I don't mean you any harm," he told her softly.

"Why do you keep bothering me?" Nebula finally said.

"Well, I don't think it's right, the way Gamora is treating you."

"I do," Drax said, staring at the both of them.

Leo frowned at the tattooed man. "I'm sorry, could you just...? Could you give us a minute alone?"

Drax merely shrugged and went back to eating his meal.

"I mean, you're sisters," Leo continued. "But you hate each other to the core."

"We were sisters once, but not anymore," Nebula whispered with some hurt in her voice.

"That's not true, Nebula," Leo told her. "You'll _always_ be sisters. And there's nothing more important in the universe than family."

Nebula swiftly turned to him with a snarl on her face. "You don't even _know_ what she put me through," she hissed. "Too much has happened between us for any reconciliation."

"Well, have you ever tried talking to her?" Leo sugggested.

"There _is_ no talking to Gamora, so why don't you keep your nose out of our business?"

"But, Nebula-"

"Whoo!" Ego zipped up his pants as he rejoined the others. "Ah. Sorry. It was a long trip."

"Yeah, it must've been," Mikey said as handed another potato chip to Groot. "You peed for, like, ten minutes, dude."

A few minutes later, Quill and Gamora returned to the camp. The former looked at Ego and said, "I'm coming with you."

"Great!" Ego laughed as he clapped his hands once. "I have so much to show you when we get there! It is a long journey so I suggest you all get some sleep, and we can leave in the morning." He touched Quill on the shoulder and gave him an affectionate squeeze. "I'm very glad you've decided to give me a chance, Peter, even though it's more than I deserve."

He and Mantis then headed back to their ship while everyone else got out their sleeping bags, except for Nebula, who would instead sleep on a log with Gamora closely watching her.

"Man, this adventure keeps getting better and better!" Mikey said excitedly to Rocket as he rolled his sleeping back open. "First we fight a giant monster, then we meet Quill's Dad, and now we're going to another planet!"

Leo overheard his brother and stopped straightening his bag. "What? Whoever said you and I were going?"

Mikey turned to his brother. "Huh? Of course we're going!"

"No, Mikey," Leo shook his head. "I think it'd be best if you and I stayed here on Berhert."

"What?! No way, Leo! I'm going with Quill!"

"No, you're-!" He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. "Let's go talk about this somewhere else." He gestured for Mikey to follow as he walked into the woods.

The younger Turtle huffed as he got up and followed his leader. Rocket and Groot watched him leave and then looked at each other concerned.

"I Am Groot," Groot squeaked.

Rocket nodded. "You read my mind."

...

"Do you always have to suck the fun out of everything?!" Mikey angrily asked Leo as they went deeper into the woods. "Come on, bro! I haven't seen these guys in a long time! Plus, with the Sovereign after us, we'd be a whole lot safer with Ego than staying here!"

Leo stopped walking and turned to face his brother. "Mikey, we don't know much about this Ego. He could very well be an imposter just like you said."

Mikey nodded, seeing his point. "Maybe, or he could really be Quill's Dad and he just wants to have a relationship with his son. And he saved us from being blown to bits, so he can't be all that bad."

"I still can't risk it, Mikey," Leo said as he shook his head. "We'd be better off here."

Mikey threw his head back and groaned loudly. "Uugh! I should never have invited you to come with me! What is your deal?!"

"My deal? In case you've forgotten, I am the leader and head of this family!" Leo said as he pointed to himself and then to Mikey. "And it's my job to protect you, Donnie, and Raph!"

"Protect us? You're always on our asses!"

Leo's eyes went big when he heard his innocent little brother cuss. Again. "MIKEY! Language!"

"I'll say whatever I want to say! And you know why? 'Cause I'm not a little kid anymore!"

Leo sighed and softened his tone since yelling wouldn't solve anything. "Mikey, stop being so stubborn and try to look at this through my perspective."

"Oh, I can see through your perspective perfectly, Leo," Mikey said in a lower but still angry voice. "And in your eyes, I'm still that helpless little Mikey who'd rather hide in his world of imagination than face reality. Well, guess what? I've changed a lot since Splinter died. I'm just as mature and independent as you are, and I don't need you protecting me all the time."

"Mikey, wait-"

"And after we fix the ship, you can go back home, but I'm staying with the Guardians."

Leo felt like the world around him stopped spinning at Mikey's words. "...What?" he whispered.

"You heard me," Mikey said as he crossed his arms. "I'm staying with Quill and the others."

Leo shook his head in denial. "No, Mikey, you...you don't mean that. You're just being emotional right now and-"

"You really think I want to go back, Leo? At least the Guardians appreciate me and treat me with respect, and I know for a fact that they all love me."

"Wh-What are you saying? You don't think _we_ love you? Of course we do! We'd do anything for you, Mikey!"

Mikey's expression softened. "I know you guys would. But maybe it's for the best. You remember what Sensei said, right? That nothing lasts forever, not even family. We were gonna go our separate ways sooner or later."

Leo could feel his eyes burn with oncoming tears. "We don't have to," he said in a slightly cracked voice.

Mikey sighed and shook his head. "Maybe _you_ should grow up and face reality, Leo."

"Um..." They both turned and saw Rocket stepping out from behind a tree with Groot on his shoulder. "Hey," he waved at them and cleared his throat. "I, uh, know it ain't none of my business, but...sounds like you two need a break from each other."

Mikey glanced back at Leo and slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess so," he mumbled.

Leo just bit his lower lip and cast his eyes down.

"So why don't we do this?" Rocket stood in between the two brothers. "How 'bout Mikey stay here with me and Groot, and you go with Quill to Ego's planet? I need someone to help keep Groot away from my expensive and breakable stuff, anyway."

"Yeah, fine," Mikey huffed, still wanting to go to Ego's planet, too. "Whatever."

"Sure," Leo said softly, blinking away his tears.

* * *

"You're leaving me with that fox?!" Nebula shouted to Gamora as the latter prepared for the trip to Ego's planet.

"He's not a fox," Gamora corrected her, then she turned to Rocket, who was repairing the ship. "Shoot her if she does anything suspicious. Or if you feel like it."

"Okay," Rocket mumbled, focusing on his work.

Groot sat on a piece of the ship and sadly watched as the others packed up their things. Gamora knelt down and smiled lovingly at the little tree creature. "Hey, it'll be just a couple of days," she whispered as she gently rubbed her finger over his cheek. "We'll be back before Rocket's finished fixing the ship." She then nodded to where Mikey sat. "And you'll have Mikey to play with."

She then walked over to the young Turtle and affectionally rubbed the dome of his bald head. "I'm sorry that all of this happened, Mikey," she said softly. "We'll make it up to you, I promise."

Mikey smiled up at her. "It's okay, Gamora. Just come back soon, okay?"

Gamora smiled back and nodded before she stepped out of the wrecked Milano. Groot waved goodbye at her with a very sad face.

Drax, Leo, and Quill all had backpacks on, and Drax carried even more bags in his hands. "What if the Sovereign come?" he asked Quill as he stepped out of the ship.

"There's no way for them to know we're here," Quill assured him. "Let's go."

"I'm uncertain about parting ways."

"God, you're like an old woman."

"Because I'm wise?"

Gamora noticed all of the bags that Drax was taking with him. "Why do you have so much luggage?"

"I don't want Groot playing with my things," Drax gruffly said.

Leo stopped for a moment to speak to Mikey, who refused to look up at him. "So, uh...I'll see you in a few days," he said awkwardly. "Have fun and...and be safe, okay?"

"Hmm," Mikey grunted and nodded, still looking down at the floor.

Mikey's cold behavior toward him hurt his already broken heart, but he smiled sadly at his youngest brother and patted him on the shoulder before he joined Drax and Gamora.

Quill was the last to leave, and he was about to apologize to Rocket for what happened the day before.

But then the raccoon said to him, "Hope Daddy isn't as big of a dick as you, orphan boy."

The human didn't think it was possible for his furry friend to be even more of an a-hole than he already was. But boy, was he wrong. "What is your goal here? To get everybody to hate you? 'Cause it's working." And with that, Quill walked out of the Milano and toward his father's ship with Gamora, Drax, and Leo.

Rocket watched them leave for a moment before resuming his work with an annoyed expression. When Mikey finally looked up, Leo was already stepping into Ego's ship with the others, and before he could even shout goodbye to his brother, the orange glass closed up and the oval-shaped spacecraft began to ascend.

Without thinking, Mikey jumped up from his seat and ran toward the ship, which was already twenty feet off the ground. He stopped running when he realized that it was pointless to chase after them and sadly watched as the ship went higher and higher until it finally vanished.

"Bye, Leo," he said in a quiet, choked up voice.


	5. Chapter 5

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

While the others were chatting and laughing somewhere else in Ego's ship, Leo sat in a corner by himself and stared at the floor in deep thought. He kept asking himself, _How did it come to this?_

Deep down, he had always known that Mikey was unhappy, but he convinced himself that everything was fine; he didn't want to believe that something was wrong. If he were the brother and leader that he should've been, then he would've put Mikey's feelings before his own and tried to fix things between them instead of waiting until it was too late.

And now Mikey wants to leave. How was he going to explain this to Donnie and Raph? More importantly, without their youngest brother, how were they going to function as a team, or a family for that matter?

He suddenly heard someone approach him and lifted his head. Gamora stood over him and gave him a small, sympathetic smile. "May I join you?" When he nodded in approval, she sat down in the corner across from him. "Whatever Mikey said to you last night," she said softly, "you have to remember that he was upset. He didn't mean any of it."

Leo sighed and shook his head. "No, he meant every word. I know my brother."

"He just needs some time," she tried to assure him. "I'm sure he has no intention of ever leaving you and your brothers, no matter how upset he might get."

"You don't understand, Gamora," he said miserably as he lowered his gaze back to floor. "Ever since our father died, our family has been gradually falling apart, and nothing I'm doing is making things better. We've been too hard on Mikey, and we're always underestimating and belittling him. He's been patient with us for years, but I guess he finally snapped, and I don't blame him."

He glanced up at Gamora with wet blue eyes and a sad smile. "Whenever he's with you, I see this...glint in his eye that I haven't seen in a long time. I can tell that he's truly happy. If he does decide to stay with you, it's probably for the best."

Gamora looked at him with sad eyes. "Leo-"

"Just promise me that you'll take good care of him, Gamora. Please. Then I'll be content with him leaving."

She stared at him for a moment before she stood back up. "We'll discuss this some other time. Come on." She walked over to him and took his hand, helping him back on his feet. "Let's rejoin the others."

...

"Hey, can I ask you a personal question?" Quill asked Mantis. He and Drax casually chatted with Ego's servant while her master slept in another secluded area of the ship.

Mantis looked the human surpised. "Oh, no one has ever asked me a personal question."

"Your antennae, what are they for?"

"Their purpose?"

At that moment, Gamora and Leo stepped into the area with cups of water in their hands, just as Drax told Mantis, "Yes, Quill and I have a bet. I say, if you are about to go through a doorway that is too low, your antennae will feel this, and keep you from being decapitated."

"Right," Quill nodded. "And if it's _anything_ other than you specifically not being decapitated by a doorway, I win."

"They are not for feeling doorways," Mantis replied, to which Drax groaned while Quill laughed triumphantly. "I think...they have something to do with empathic abilities."

"What are those?" Gamora asked.

"If I touch someone, I can feel their feelings."

"You mean, you can read minds?" Leo asked.

Mantis shook her head. "No. Telepaths know thoughts. Empaths feel feelings. Emotions." She then turned to Quill and lifted her hand. "May I?"

Quill shrugged and nodded. "All right."

She gently touched his knee and the tips of her antenna instantly glowed a soft white light. She closed her eyes as she soaked in all of Quill's emotions before she opened them again and smiled brightly. "You feel...love."

Quill's eyes went wide and he began to feel nervous as he realized where this was heading. "Yeah, I guess, yeah, I feel a general unselfish love for just about everybody-"

"No! Romantic, sexual love."

Quill frantically shook his head. "No. No, I don't."

Mantis pointed to Gamora. "For _her_!"

The green-skinned assassin looked slightly shocked at this revelation, and Leo glanced up at her with a teasing grin.

"No!" Quill denied. "That is not..."

Drax was incredibly shocked by this, then he quickly burst into a fit of booming laughter. "She just told everyone your deepest, darkest secret!" he announced as he pointed at Quill.

"Dude, come on!" Quill groaned. "I think you're overreacting a little bit!"

But Drax continued to tease and mock him. "YOU MUST BE SO EMBARRASSED!" he laughed.

And Quill was indeed feeling embarrassed, as was Gamora, and Leo could see a blush on the green woman's cheeks but decided not to tease her about it.

"Do me!" Drax told Mantis as he enthusiastically pointed to himself. "Do me! Do me!"

Mantis stood up from her seat and walked over to Drax, placing her hand on his chest. She immediately began to giggle as her antennae glowed. "I have never felt such humor!" she happily said as she pointed her finger at Quill and laughed along with Drax.

"So unbelievably uncool," Quill muttered, wishing that he could disappear right there and then.

The still giggling Mantis got back up and walked over to Gamora, wanting to feel her emotions next. But the latter quickly grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"Touch me, and the only thing you're gonna feel is a broken jaw," she threatened with an icy glare.

Mantis didn't need to touch Gamora to know what she was feeling and backed off the moment she was released. "I can also alter emotions to some extent," she told the group.

"Yeah, like what?" Quill asked.

"If I touch someone who is sad, I can ease them into contentment for a short while. I can make a stubborn person compliant. But I mostly use it to help my master sleep. He lies awake at night, thinking about his progeny."

"Progeny?" Leo raised an eye ridge. "There are others like him?"

Mantis seemed slightly disturbed at the question but nodded. "Yes, but they have been dead for years. He feels alone in the universe. I know how it is to be alone," she added somberly.

"You said you can ease other people's pain. Use that on him," Gamora gestured to Leo.

"What?" Leo looked at her surprised, then turned to Mantis. "No, no, that's okay. You don't have to..."

But Mantis touched him on the shoulder and he gasped softly as he felt a warm and gentle sensation flow throughout his entire body. It was comforting, like an embrace from a loved one. But regardless of the overwhelming good feeling, there was still that bit of pain in his heart from Mikey's words to him and the thought of his little brother leaving. Still, he felt a lot better than before.

Mantis removed her hand and looked at him curiously. "Better?"

Leo smiled at her warmly and nodded. "Much. Thank you."

* * *

 _ **Berhert**_

"They're so beautiful," Mikey said in awe as he looked up at Berhert's four moons in the night sky.

He sat next to Rocket on a large, sturdy tree branch admiring the beauty of the planet. Groot stayed with Nebula back in the wrecked Milano to keep an eye on her, while the two animals had spent the whole evening setting traps throughout the woods for in case the Sovereign or any other intruders come snooping around.

"They're bigger than our moon back home," Mikey continued, swinging his dangling legs back and forth. "Wonder why there's four instead of just one?"

"Who knows?" Rocket yawned as he scooted over to the trunk of the tree and leaned up against it. "Wake me up when something exciting happens." He then closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

"Hey, Rocket?" Mikey softly spoke to him.

"Yeah?" the raccoon mumbled tiredly with his eyes still closed.

"You really think it was a good idea to leave Groot alone with Gamora's crazy sister?"

"Eh, he'll be fine. 'Sides, she can't do anything in those cuffs."

"Okay."

The crickets chirped somewhere in the woods. Crick. Crick. Crick.

"Hey, Rocket?"

Said raccoon sighed. "Yeah?"

"You think the Sovereign will find us?"

"Not likely. And if they do, we'll be ready for them. 'Kay?"

"Okay."

Crick. Crick. Crick.

"Hey, Rocket?"

"Omigod, what?!" Rocket yelled exasperatedly, his eyes wide open. "What?! What is it?!"

Mikey flinched and glanced away. "Nothing. Sorry."

"No, no! Go ahead and say what you want to say! I won't rest until you do! Obviously!"

The Turtle bit his lower lip. "It's just...I feel bad about not saying goodbye to Leo."

"He'll get over it," Rocket grumbled.

Mikey shook his head. "I acted like a big jerk to him."

"We all can act like jerks sometimes. Except me," he added with a grin. "I'm a class-A jerk 24/7."

Mikey chuckled softly and nodded. "Got that right, but you're still fun to hang out with."

"Think so, huh? Even though I piss everyone off and steal their stuff?"

The Turtle shrugged. "Nobody's perfect, dude. But you really shouldn't steal, 'cause you're a hero now. Plus, you're setting a bad example for Groot."

Rocket just scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, thanks for your pearls of wisdom, Michelangelo. But seriously, I wouldn't worry about your brother. Things like that happen with families all the time, especially with mine." He crawled over to Mikey and sat close to him. "You already know that you're one of us, and if you're still thinking about staying with us, we'd be ecstatic to have ya. But don't stay because you're upset with your brothers, 'cause you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Trust me."

Mikey looked down at his dangling feet, taking Rocket's words into consideration. Then he began to giggle as he felt something tickle his left side.

"You know what I missed while you were away?" Rocket chuckled as he continued to rub his tiny fingers up and down the Turtle's side. "Tickle fights. Don't tell Quill, though."

"Oh, you're gonna get it now," Mikey grinned big as he leapt at Rocket and began to attack him with tickles, showing the raccoon no mercy.

Rocket laughed so hard as he felt Mikey's fingers under his arms, then one of his ears twitched when he heard the sound of ships flying over them. He immediately stopped laughing and pushed Mikey's hands away. "Shhh, stop," he whispered urgently and nodded to the sky. "We got company."

...

The Ravagers slowly crept toward the Milano with their guns raised, following the music that was playing on Quill's tape deck. Those who at the front line were the first to experience Rocket's painful traps. One Ravager stepped on a button that triggered the traps to their left, and dozens of tranquilizer darts came at them all at once. Not a single dart missed it target and all of the Ravagers dropped to the ground unconscious.

The next wave of men heard Rocket and Mikey move in the trees and fired their guns at the two. Luckily, the raccoon and Turtle were much too quick for them and dodged every bullet, jumping from one tree to the next. At one point Rocket hid behind a tree which shielded him from the oncoming bullets, while Mikey hid behind the tree opposite to his. Rocket flashed him a cocky grin as he pulled out a device and pushed one of the red buttons.

A burst of blue energy emitted from a device that was hidden under the leaves and launched the Ravagers a couple of feet off the ground before they dropped and landed on their faces. Before they could even recover, the traps went off again and they all screamed as they went up into the air. Rocket and Mikey both laughed as the former kept pushing the buttons and launching the pirates, and after a couple more blasts they stopped and moved on to the next group of unsuspecting victims.

The third wave didn't even know what hit them as Rocket swiftly hopped onto each head to plant a small device on their foreheads. Once he had finished, he pushed a button on the device on his wrist and the Ravagers went into spasms as electricity was discharged. They all dropped to the ground, unconscious and smoking.

Rocket jumped down from a tree and into a clearing, standing very still and listening for any more intruders. He picked up the scent of a Ravager creeping up behind him, and then another Ravager, a bald pink-tonned alien with fangs and pointy ears, stepped out from the bushes in front of him.

"Ain't so tough now without all your toys, are you?" the pink Ravager sneered as he pointed his gun at the raccoon. But then the chain of Mikey's nunchuck suddenly wrapped itself around his waist and he yelped as he was pulled back into the bushes. Rocket smiled to himself as he briefly listened to Mikey punching the daylights out of the pirate before he did a big backflip and landed on top of the other guy's head, punching him in the face repeatedly until he fell down.

Mikey stepped out of the bushes and put his nunchucks away. "Whew. Is that all of them?"

Suddenly, somewhere in the distance, a hidden stranger whistled and a glowing red arrow dashed through the trees at an incredible speed. Rocket flinched as it stopped right in front of his face, threatening to pierce him between the eyes. "Crap," he mumbled.

"Rocket!" Mikey started to run to his friend, but then the arrow quickly turned on him and the tip was now inches away from his beak.

"Kid, don't move," Rocket warned through gritted teeth.

At that moment, a blue man with a red metal Mohawk stepped into the clearing with more Ravagers behind him, and Mikey instantly remembered him from the battle on Xandar: Yondu, Quill's former boss. He laughed at the two animals as the crew surrounded and closed in on them. "Hey there, rat." He nodded at Mikey. "Turtle."

Mikey just glared at him. "Long time, no see, Mandrill Butt."

"How's it going, you blue idiot?" Rocket gruffed.

"Not so bad," Yondu said casually as he chewed on a straw. "We got ourselves a pretty good little gig here. This golden gal with quite a high opinion of herself has offered us a large sum to deliver you and your pals over to her because she wants to kill y'all."

The other Ravagers chuckled darkly while Mikey gulped in fear. "So I take it she's still mad at us?" the Turtle chuckled nervously.

"Just let the kid go, all right?" Rocket nodded to his young friend, who looked at him surprised. "He's got nothing to do with this. I'm the one who took the batteries."

"Yeah?" Yondu nodded with a grin. "I don't doubt it."

"Give me your word you won't hurt him or Groot, and I'll tell you where the batteries are," Rocket offered.

Yondu chuckled again. "Luck for you, my word don't mean squat." The entire crew chuckled at his response. "Otherwise, I'd actually hand you over."

Immediately, all of the smiles on the Ravagers' faces dropped. One of them, a large reddish man with a horribly disfigured face, a long beard, and a black messy Mohawk, was particularly outraged. "Otherwise, you'd _what_?" he shouted.

Mikey looked at the captain confused. "Wait...so you're _not_ gonna turn us in?"

"Nah," Yondu shook his head. "We'll take them batteries. They're worth what? A quarter mill on the open market?"

The men behind Yondu nodded in approval, but the other larger half behind the disfigured guy weren't too happy with this decision and they all glared at their leader. Mikey immediately got a bad feeling in his gut.

"That priestess offered us a million!" the disfigured Ravager argued. "A quarter is only one third of that!"

"A quarter ain't a third," Yondu corrected him.

"A quarter is twenty-five," a fat Ravager with goggles said. "We can't even buy a pair of boots with twenty-five units."

"Um," Mikey raised his hand, "I'm no math whiz, but I'm pretty sure that a quarter is one fourth-"

"Enough!" Yondu yelled angrily. "The point is, we ain't stupid enough to help kill the Guardians of the Galaxy! The whole dang Nova Corps would be on us!"

"That ain't right!" One Ravager stepped forward from the group behind Yondu, a scrawny man named Kraglin. "I just gotta say it this one time, Captain," his voice cracked with emotion as he spoke. "No matter how many times Quill betrays you, you protect him like none of the rest of us much matter!"

Yondu clenched his jaw at this accusation, while the angry half shouted in agreement.

"I'm the one what sticks up for you!" Kraglin shouted.

One of Yondu's loyal followers, Tullk, tried to calm his comrade down. "Take it easy, Kraglin."

But the disfigured Ravager nodded. "Damn straight, lad! He's gone soft. Suppose it's time for a change in leadership!" He pointed his gun at Yondu and the men behind him quickly followed suit.

Those who were still loyal to Yondu raised their own guns to defend their captain, while Yondu, himself, summoned his arrow and prepared to slaughter all of the mutineers.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Rocket yelled as he waved his arms around. "There must be some kind of peaceful resolution to this, fellas! Or even a violent one where we're standing over there!" he suggested as he pointed to the woods. He then motioned for Mikey to follow as he slowly stepped away.

"Right!" Mikey nodded. "So, uh, we're just gonna leave and let you guys work this out. Sound good?"

Yondu glared at the mutiny leader and was about to whistle...

...when his Mohawk was suddenly blasted off his head. He groaned weakly as sparks flew out of his skull before he dropped to the ground along with the arrow.

Behind him, Nebula, who had somehow freed herself, aimed a gun at Rocket and Mikey. She grinned sadistically and stared at them with cold black eyes.

"Uh-oh," Mikey whimpered.

Rocket just groaned in annoyance. Typical.

Before they could even make a run for it, she fired two electric blasts and hit them both. They lay unconscious on the grass while the rest of the crew slowly turned to her, both horrified and impressed.

"Well, hello, boys," she cooly said before she took a bite out of a yaro fruit. But she quickly spat it out in disgust. "It's not ripe."


	6. Chapter 6

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _ **Ego's Planet**_

"Welcome, everyone, to my world."

Leo felt like he was in a Thomas Kinkade painting as he and the others gazed around at the beauty of Ego's planet. The vast landscapes were covered with mutilcolored trees and the waterfalls were absolutely stunning. Blue auroras danced in the sky and rainbow-colored bubbles floated all around them. Drax poked a bubble out of curiosity and instead of disappearing, it multiplied into smaller bubbles, making the tatooed-man laugh in amusement. Leo chuckled himself as he watched them continue to multiply and float away. Mikey would have a blast here.

They were brought to Ego's house, which was a golden palace with blue-green windows and a beautiful fountain with dancing water out front. Leo couldn't believe that Ego owned all of this and created it with his two bare hands. Just what exactly was he?

Gamora was wondering about this as well. "You own a planet and can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit. What are you exactly?"

Ego smiled boastfully at her question. "I'm what's called a Celestial, sweetheart."

Quill looked at his father shocked. "A Celestial, like a god?"

"Mmm, small 'g,' son. At least on days when I'm feeling humble." He laughed as he and Mantis went up the steps that led to the front entrance of the palace. But Quill, Drax, Leo, and Gamora all stayed behind for a moment as they let this revelation sink in.

A stunned Leo turned to Quill. "So does this mean you're half-god?"

Quill shook his head. "I don't know," he said in a quiet voice.

When they stepped inside, Leo couldn't help but gasp softly at how magnificent the interior was. The walls, pillars, and ceiling were carved and adorned with precious gems, and giant floating dioramas lined either side of the main hall. Ego led them to the diaorama of a flickering brain that was composed of polychromatic lights.

It began to animate as Ego told his story. "I don't know where I came from exactly. First thing I remember is flickering, adrift in the cosmos, utterly and entirely alone." The brain suddenly began to pull rocks and cosmic dust into itself, forming a hard shell that eventually became the planet that they all stood on. "Over millions of years, I learned to control the molecules around me. I grew smarter and stronger. And I continued building from there, layer by layer, the very planet you walk on now. But I wanted more. I desired...meaning."

Ego led them to another diaorama that displayed the brain in the center of the planet. "'There must be some life out there in the universe besides just me,' I thought. And so I set myself the task of finding it. I created what I imagined biological life to be like, down to the most minute detail." A skeletal framework of light flowed from the brain and up to the surface of the planet, then it shapeshifted into the structure of a human being. Within seconds, it grew muscle, skin, and hair, and it even created itself clothes. The younger Ego had shoulder-length wavy brown hair and wore a pair of blue jeans, a black T-shirt, and a red leather jacket.

Everyone one was silent for a moment, before Drax suddenly asked, "Did you make a penis?"

"Dude!" Quill turned to him disgusted.

"What is wrong with you?" Gamora asked the tattooed man incredulously.

"If he's a planet, how could he make a baby with your mother?" Drax innocently asked. "He would smush her!"

"Um," Leo awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, "it's not very polite to ask how two people...you know..." He put his index fingers together to symbolize the joining of two people.

But the ever-literal Drax wasn't getting it and tilted his head. "What?"

"It's alright," Ego assured the Turtle with a chuckle. "Yes, Drax, I got a penis, and it's not half bad. I've also got pain receptors and a digestive system and all the accompanying junk." Ego gestured to a diorama of his ship leaving the planet and landing on another. "I wanted to experience what it truly meant to be human as I set out amongst the stars until I found what I sought: life." The younger Ego walked up to a little girl with pink skin, who looked up at him curiously as she held her teddy bear close. "I was not alone in the universe after all."

Quill paused before he asked the question that had been on his mind since he first met Ego: "When did you meet my mother?"

A soft smile formed on Ego's lips as he turned to face his son. "Not long after." He then walked up to another diorama of his younger self embracing a pregnant woman with blonde curly hair. "It was with Meredith that I first experienced love. I called her my river lily. And from that love, Peter...you." At that word, the inside of the woman's stomach glowed to reveal a tiny baby inside.

Quill looked up in wonder at the display and almost felt like crying.

"I have searched searched for you for so long," Ego gently told his son. "And when I heard of a man from Earth who held an Infinity Stone in his hand without dying, I knew you must be the son of the woman I loved."

Quill turned to him with a stern expression. "If you loved her, why did you leave her?"

Ego seemed conflicted and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Then he nodded to the back entrance of the palace. "Let's go for a walk. I have so much more to show you." He turned to the others with a smile. "Make yourselves at home."

As Ego and Quill walked out of the hall, Leo looked up at Gamora. "You think Mikey and Rocket are doing okay back on Berhert?"

Gamora gave him a reassuring smile and touched him on the shoulder. "I'm sure they're fine."

* * *

"THIS IS MUTINY! THIS IS MUTINY!"

Aboard the Ravagers' ship, the mutinous pirates cheered and laughed as two of them dragged a bloodied and beaten Tullk toward the airlock. Mikey, Rocket and Yondu were all tied to metal chairs while Groot was locked inside a cage that dangled from the ceiling.

"THIS IS MUTINY!" Tullk continued to scream as he weakly struggled to break free. "THIS IS MUTINY!" The two Ravagers threw him inside the airlock and a glass door closed him in. Tullk spat blood at them in defience and pounded on the glass door as he cursed at them in the final few seconds of his life.

Mikey and Rocket felt sick to their stomachs as they heard a loud buzz followed by the sound of air hissing. The crowd that had gathered around the airlock blocked their view but they knew that Tullk had been sucked into space and slowly suffocated to death...along with the other half of the crew that had been thrown out earlier for their undying loyalty to Yondu.

The former captain, himself, stared blankly ahead as his men were being killed one at a time. The last Ravager to die sobbed and begged for him to help. But Yondu didn't even look at him.

The leader of the mutinous gang stomped up to Yondu and leaned in close to his face, sneering at him with his rotten pointy teeth. "You're the one what killed those men, by leading them down the wrong path. Because you're weak!" He punched Yondu in the face, earning a cheer from the crowd. "And stupid!" He hit him again and the gang laughed.

The only Ravager who didn't cheer or laugh was Kraglin, who flinched every time his former captain got punched. He glanced sadly at the airlock, from which all of his friends had been launched to their demise.

The disfigured leader turned to his men. "It's time for the Ravagers to rise once again to glory with a new captain..." He raised his fists in the air and yelled, "...TASERFACE!"

At the announcement of the leader's strange name, Mikey's cheeks puffed out in stifled laughter which had been drowned out by the crowd's cheering. Unfortunately, Rocket couldn't hold it in and everyone immediately became silent as the raccoon threw his head back and kicked his feet in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

"Oh, I...I'm sorry," Rocket panted after he finally calmed down. "Y-Your name is...it's _Taserface_?"

Taserface couldn't see the humor in this and nodded. "That's right."

"Do you...shoot tasers out of your face?"

Taserface raised his fists once more and shouted, "It's metaphorical!" The Ravagers cheered again.

"Uh...for what?" Mikey asked.

Everyone became quiet again to hear Taserface's response.

Taserface didn't even know, himself, and thought about it for a moment. "For...it is name...what strikes fear into the hearts of anyone what hears it!"

The other Ravagers didn't get it but pretended to and nodded their heads in agreement.

Mikey and Rocket looked at each other puzzled.

"Ooookaaaaay?" the Turtle said with a shrug.

"Okay, whatever you say," the raccoon giggled.

Now Taserface was beginning to get mad. He pulled out a knife and pointed it at Rocket. "You shut up," he hissed. "You're next." He turned back to Yondu and pressed the blade against his neck. "Udonta, I have waited a long time to..." He stopped when he heard Rocket snickering again and Mikey shushing him. "WHAT?!" he yelled angrily as he glared at the raccoon.

Rocket shook his head giggling. "I...I'm sorry. I am _so_ sorry! I just keep imagining you waking up in the morning, sir, looking in the mirror and then in all seriousness saying to yourself, 'You know what would be a really kickass name? TASERFACE!'" He threw his back and laughed. "That's how I hear you in my head!"

Mikey laughed, as well, and decided to join in on the fun. "Dude, do you use that name on dating websites? Oh, yeah, I'll bet a _lot_ of ladies would want to go out with someone named Taserface!"

"I know, right?!" Rocket laughed.

"Your scary picture probably wouldn't help much either!" Mikey added.

The other Ravagers began to snicker, while Taserface became even angrier as he gave the two animals a death stare.

"What was your second choice?" Rocket asked. "Scrotum Hat?!"

Everyone except Taserface burst out laughing.

"Dude, as ugly as you are, you should've called yourself 'Assface'!" Mikey said. The laughter of the crowd encouraged him to go on. "I mean, I've met a Fishface and even a Pizza Face, but never a Taser-EEP!"

He pulled his head into his shell in time as Taserface threw his fist at him. The disfigured alien hit the back of the metal chair instead and left a large dent. A protective Rocket sat upright in his chair and pulled at his restraints while Groot gasped in his cage. Mikey look up through his hole in fear at Taserface, who had drool running down his beard as he snarled viciously.

"After we kill Udonta and the rat...we're having turtle soup for dinner," Taserface growled.

A chubby Ravager with goggles named Gef spoke up from the crowd, "But...I don't even like turtle soup."

Another voice spoke up, but this one belonged to a woman. "That's enough killing for today." The Ravagers all turned around to see Nebula leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. In both respect and fear, they stepped aside to clear a path for the daughter of Thanos as she walked toward Taserface.

"I thought you were the biggest sadist in the galaxy," Taserface said as he backed away from Mikey.

"That was when Daddy was paying my bills," Nebula said. "The Priestess wants to kill the fox and Turtle herself." She then gestured to Yondu. "And he has bounties on his head in at least 12 Kree provinces."

Taserface snarled and slowly advanced toward her. Udonta and the two loudmouths were his to kill, and she had no right to deprive him of that pleasure, daughter of Thanos or not.

But Nebula showed no fear. "I assure you, I am not as easy a mark as an old man without his magic stick or a couple of woodland creatures."

Taserface stopped, realizing that he was indeed no match for her.

"I want 10% of the take," Nebula said with a small evil grin, "and a couple more things."

* * *

 _ **Ego's Planet**_

Quill and Ego stood before a giant statue Meredith in a beautiful garden. The two were silent for a while before Quill told his father, "My mother told everyone my father was from the stars." He turned to Ego, who looked remorseful and sad. "She had brain cancer, so everyone thought she was delusional."

Ego sighed softly and reached to touch his son. "Peter..."

But Quill stepped back. "Listen, I'd love to believe all of this, I really would. But you left the most wonderful woman ever...to die alone!"

"I didn't _want_ to leave your mother, Peter," Ego insisted and gestured to himself. "If I don't return regularly to my planet and the light within it, this form will wither and perish."

"So why didn't you come back?" Quill demanded, becoming even more upset. "Why did you send Yondu, a criminal of all people, to come and fetch me?"

Tears seemed to form in Ego's eyes. "I loved your mother, Peter! I couldn't stand to set foot on an Earth where she wasn't living! You can't imagine what that's like-"

"I know _exactly_ what that feels like!" Quill screamed with tears in his eyes, too. "I HAD TO WATCH HER DIE!"

Ego looked at him stunned, then glanced down at the ground ashamed. He didn't know that his son had suffered so much in his absence. He touched Quill on the shoulder and gave it a loving squeeze. "Over the millions and millions of years of my existence, I've made many mistakes, Peter. But you're not one of them."

Quill's angry expression softened at his father's words.

"Please give me the chance to be the father she would want me to be. There's so much that I need to teach you about this planet and the light within. They are a part of you, Peter."

"What do you mean?" Quill asked.

Ego held out his hands in response. "Give me your hands, son." Quill hesitantly did as he was told, and Ego pushed them closer together until they were a few inches apart. "Hold them like that. Now, close your eyes and concentrate. Take your brain to the center of this planet."

Quill closed his eyes and followed his father's instructions, and within seconds, blue light emanated from them. He gasped loudly while his father praised him, and the light faded away as he started to freak out. "Whoa! Wha-What was-?"

"It's okay," Ego assured him. "Just relax. Concentrate. You can do it. Bring it back."

Quill concentrated again and the light came back more strongly.

"Yes! Yes, now shape it. Feel that energy."

Very slowly, Quill formed a ball of cosmic light roughly the size of a baseball. He chuckled in disbelief and looked up at his father.

Ego smiled proudly at him. "You're home."

Quill smiled back tearfully. He truly felt like he was home at last. Then to his further delight and happiness, Ego stepped away and gestured for him to throw the ball. He had dreamt of playing catch with his father since he was a kid, and at long last, that dream had become reality as the two tossed the ball back and forth at each other.

...

"I'm happy for Quill," Leo said softly as he and Gamora explored the rest of the magnificent palace. They were now walking down a hall that had large paintings on the walls. "Aren't you?"

Gamora hummed quietly in agreement, but she still felt uncertain about all this.

Leo stopped to look at a painting that caught his eye. A muscular horned monster with long claws, two pairs of black eyes, and spikes all over its body had its massive jaws open in a roar, revealing its sharp, jagged teeth. Standing before it with his sword raised above his head was a warrior in golden armor, his long red cape flowing in the wind. The two appeared to be fighting each other on top of a cliff and there was a flash of lighting in the dark blue sky.

The monster in the painting reminded him of the Shredder after he mutated and his throat became tight at the terrible memory of his father's death. He couldn't get the image of Shredder stabbing Splinter out of his head and he could still hear the sickening thud of his father's body hitting the pavement after he had been thrown off the building.

He jumped at the touch of Gamora's hand on his shell.

"Leo?" Gamora looked at the Turtle concerned. "Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Leo told her with a forced smile, which quickly dropped. "I'm just worried about Mikey. He never really talks about our father's death, but I can tell that he's still hurting from it. He's never cussed before, at least not in front of us, and he's becoming more and more rebellious. And now he wants to leave us. I want to help him but he won't let me."

Gamora nodded understandingly. "Maybe a little space is all that Mikey needs. Sometimes when our loved ones try to help us in our darkest hour, it feels like they're suffocating us even though they mean well."

Leo's shoulders dropped in sadness. "I thought Mikey was happy," he said in a quiet voice. "How could I be so oblivious?"

"You're a good brother, Leo," Gamora told him in a soft voice. "Mikey admires you. During our last adventure together, he talked about you the most out of all his brothers."

Leo looked up at her surprised. "Really?"

She smiled and nodded. "You inspire him to never give up and to keep on fighting no matter what. He thinks of you as a role model, and I can see why."

The Turtle smiled to himself as his heart began to glow with happiness and pride. He had no idea that Mikey admired him so much. "Wow," he whispered.

The two continued down the hall and toward the exit, and as they got closer to the doors, they could hear Mantis talking to Drax outside. "Drax? There's something I must tell you..."

Gamora opened one of the doors and Drax and Mantis were sitting on the steps of the palace. They both turned around and Mantis seemed troubled as she became silent and looked down at her feet.

Leo stepped out after Gamora. "What's going on?" he asked them.

"This gross bug lady is my new friend," Drax said with a smile.

Mantis looked up at them and smiled as well. "I'm learning many things, like I'm a pet and ugly."

"What?" Leo looked at her shocked. "You're not ugly."

"Drax!" Gamora scolded her friend.

Drax looked at her and Leo confused as he gestured to Mantis. "What are you talking about it?"

Gamora rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Mantis, can you show us where we'll be staying?"

...

Mantis led Gamora, Leo, and Drax through a field and toward a villa just as the sun began to set. Strangely, though, there were no animals or even bugs of any kind anywhere.

"Mantis, why are there no other beings on this planet?" Leo asked the host. "It seems big enough to house a lot more people."

"The planet _is_ Ego," Mantis explained. "A dog would not invite a flea to live on his back."

"And you're not a flea?" Gamora questioned.

"I'm a flea with a purpose. I help him to sleep."

The green-skinned warrior walked around Mantis and stood in front of her. "What were you about to say to Drax before Leo and I walked out?"

Mantis looked at her with what appeared to be fear in her large dark eyes, then she shook her head. "Nothing." She walked past Gamora and continued on her way. "Your quarters are this way."

Gamora looked at Leo and Drax, who were just as confused and skeptical as she was. Mantis was hiding something, but what?


	7. Chapter 7

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

"Oof!"

"Uhn!"

"Ow!"

Rocket, Yondu, and Mikey were all roughly shoved into a holding cell by Taserface and his men.

"Dudes," Mikey coughed as he sat upright and glared at the Ravagers, "you totally suck at hospitality."

Taserface just chuckled darkly and locked the doors. "We deliver you to the Kree in the morning." Then he sneered as he leaned in closer to the bars. "None of you will last much longer after that."

As Taserface and his men walked away, Rocket called after him. "Okay, Taserface! Hey, tell the other guys we said 'hi', _Taserface_!"

This made Taserface stop dead in his tracks, but he didn't turn around.

Mikey giggled and joined in on the taunting. "You know, _Taserface_ , you have a heart of stone, you really do. But to tell ya the truth, stone would actually be softer. And of course, I'm being _metaphorical_!"

Taserface growled in annoyance and continued on his way. Mikey heard one of the Ravagers suggesting to smash Groot with a rock, but thankfully Taserface said that he was "too adorable to kill."

Rocket sighed as he sat down. "No offense but your employees are a bunch of jerks," he told Yondu, who sat across from him.

"Yeah," Mikey sat down next to Rocket. "I'm guessing they're all gonna get poor performance reviews after this? Let's see. 'Teamwork: poor. Dependability: poor. Personality: poor. Appearance...' Oh, _definitely_ poor." He and Rocket chuckled, but they stopped when they noticed how forlon Yondu looked, so the Turtle awkwardly cleared his throat. "Sorry. So, uh, what's _your_ story?"

Yondu briefly glanced up at the two then lowered his gaze again. "I was a Kree battle slave for 20 years when Stakar, my mentor, freed me. He offered me a place with the Ravagers. He said all I needed to do was adhere to the code. But I was young...and greedy...and stupid." He looked directly at Rocket. "Like you stealing those batteries."

"That was mostly Drax," Rocket lied.

"Was not," Mikey mumbled.

Yondu continued his story. "Me and Stakar and the other captains, we weren't so different from you Guardians. The only family I ever had. When I broke the code, they exiled me."

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, what did you do that was so bad?" Mikey asked.

Yondu clenched his teeth. "I stole kids from their homes and families."

Mikey's jaw dropped. "What?" he asked incredulously. "You mean Quill wasn't the only one? Dude, that's...that's just _sick_!"

"I didn't ask questions, 'cause I only cared about the pay. But the code restricts Ravagers from dealing in kids." Yondu sighed heavily in shame. "This is what I deserve."

Rocket stood back up. "Slow down, drama queen. You might deserve this, but _we_ don't. We gotta get outta here."

"Where's Quill?" Yondu asked.

"He's with his Dad," Mikey answered.

Yondu's red eyes widened. "Ego?"

"Yeah," Rocket. "It's a day for dumbass names."

At this, Yondu grinned and chuckled, showing his rotten, yellow teeth.

Rocket grinned, too. "You're smiling, and for a second, I got a warm feeling, but then it was ruined by those disgusting-ass teeth."

"Yeah, dude, there's this amazing invention called the toothbrush," Mikey joked. "You should try it sometime."

Yondu's grin dropped to an annoyed frown. "You two like professional assholes or what?"

Mikey shrugged and nodded to Rocket. "I learned from the best."

"Why didn't you deliver Quill to Ego like you promised?" Rocket asked Yondu.

"He was skinny," the blue Ravager told him. "Could fit into places we couldn't. Good for thievin'."

The raccoon looked at him skeptically. "Uh-huh."

"That's what Quill said." Mikey stood up and walked over to a table, where he picked up a few pieces of paper and a pencil. "Don't worry, dudes. I have, like a hundred awesome escape plans swimming around in my head right now, so listen up..."

...

About thirty minutes had passed and Mikey was still writing down ideas in the form of drawings. He, Rocket, and Yondu all sat in a circle on the floor, and the whole place was littered with crumpled up paper.

"Okay, how about this one?" Mikey held up a drawing of gerbils wearing ninja masks. "We'll recuite an army of rats and train them in the art of ninjutsu, and they'll kick the Ravagers' butts and take over the ship! It's foolproof!"

Both Yondu and Rocket looked at Mikey unimpressed.

"Ninja rats?" Rocket muttered.

"Hmmm," Mikey rubbed his chin in deep thought then crumpled up the drawing. "You're right. That's impossible." He put down another blank piece of paper and began to draw. "How about this? We'll recruit an amy of rats, instruct them to dig a tunnel with spoons-"

"We've already established that the spoon plan ain't gonna work," Yondu said.

Rocket sighed exasperatedly. "That's it. We're never getting outta here."

"Hey, you gotta think positive, Rocket," Mikey said.

"Oh, think positive? You want to know what I think? I think you're an idiot."

"Oh, yeah?! Well, what do you have in mind, Mr. Smartypants?!"

"At least I _wear_ pants, you nudist!"

"Oh, _that's_ rich!"

"Hey!" Yondu spoke up. "You two done? I got an idea on how to get outta here. But we're gonna need your little friend."

...

Groot slowly walked down the halls, completely drenched and miserable. The Ravagers dressed him up in a miniature outfit that was made specifically for him, and then they tortured the poor little guy by kicking him, stomping on him, and pouring their alcoholic drinks all over him.

He was about to walk past the cell when Yondu caught his attention. "Psst! Hey, twig! Come here."

Groot approached the bars and looked up at the trio with tiny sad eyes.

"Groot..." Mikey's heart broke right in half and he poked his finger through the bars to pet Groot.

"Aw, man," Rocket groaned. "What did they do to you?"

"Hey, you wanna help us get out of here?" Yondu gently asked Groot with a friendly grin.

Groot nodded.

"There's something I need you to get and bring back to me. In the captain's quarters, there's a prototype fin, the thing I wore on my head. There's a drawer next to the bunk. It's in that. It's red. You got it?"

Groot nodded again and sprinted down the hall.

Yondu chuckled and smiled confidently at Rocket and Mikey. The two animals just looked at him worried.

...

A few minutes later, Groot came back with a stained pair of underwear.

"That's my underwears," Yondu told him.

Rocket facepalmed. "Yeah, I was pretty sure he didn't know what you were talkin' about. You have to explain it more careful."

Yondu tried again. "It's a prototype _fin_."

...

Groot brought them an orloni that squirmed and wiggled in his grasp.

"That's an orloni," Rocket said. "It's a fin, Groot."

Yondu sighed and shook his head. "You explain it this time," he told Rocket.

The raccoon took a deep breath. "All right."

...

Groot now held a robotic eye.

"That's Vorker's eye," Yondu said. "He takes it out when he sleeps."

Mikey shrugged. "Well, he was kinda close, I guess."

"Go," Yondu told Groot. "Look again."

"But leave the eye here," Rocket instructed.

Yondu looked at him confused. "Why?"

"He's gonna wake up tomorrow," Rocket snickered, then he laughed, "and he's not gonna know...WHERE HIS EYE IS!" He leaned against Mikey for support as he went into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Mikey and Yondu looked at each other puzzled.

...

Groot dragged a metal desk with his vines and brought it to the cell.

Rocket shook his head and groaned. "That's a desk."

"Here, let me try." Mikey knelt down and drew an arc on a piece of paper. "See, look," he held the drawing up for Groot to see. "It's shaped like this."

...

Groot returned with a large, curved brown lump in his hands.

Everyone leaned in closer to look at it.

Mikey squinted his eyes. "What the heck is...?" His eyes bulged out when he realized what it was.

They all pulled back and yelled out in disgust. "Oh, gross!" "That's disgusting!" "Where did you even _find_ that?!"

"No, Groot!" Mikey frantically shook his heads and hands. "That is NOT a fin!"

"Put that away and go wash your hands!" Rocket ordered. " _Now_!"

...

After Groot washed up and came back, Yondu showed the little tree creature his Ravager badge.

"The drawer you wanna open has this symbol on it," he explained as he handed Groot the badge. "Okay?"

Groot stared at the badge in his hands then up Yondu. He slowly lifted the item over his head and wore it like a hat.

"What?!" Yondu yelled. "No!"

"He's thinks you want him to wear it as a hat," Rocket told the captain.

"That's NOT what I said!"

"I Am Groot," Groot squeaked as he put the badge down.

"He's relieved you don't want him to," Rocket translated.

"I Am Groot."

"He hates hats."

"I Am Groot."

"On anyone, not just himself."

"I Am Groot."

"One minute, you think someone has a weird-shaped head, the next minute it's just because you realize part of that head is the hat." Rocket paused. " _That's_ why you don't like hats?"

Groot nodded.

"Not even tiaras?" Mikey asked.

Groot shook his head.

"Well, what about sombreros? Everyone loves sombreros."

Groot shook his head again.

"This is an important conversation right now?" Yondu mumbled.

...

After another thirty minutes of waiting for Groot to return, they head heavy footsteps coming down the hall and toward their cell. Mikey began to panic, fearing that someone had captured Groot and was coming to teach them a lesson.

Kraglin stepped into view and was holding Groot and Yondu's fin.

The young Turtle ran to the bars and angrily shook them. "You let go of Groot right now or you'll be sorry!" he yelled to the Ravager.

But to his surprise, Kraglin held the fin out to him. "Here."

Mikey blinked as he slipped his hand through the bars and took it. "Wait...aren't you one of the bad guys?"

Kraglin swallowed and guilt was written all over his face. "I didn't mean to do a mutiny," he said in a cracked voice. Then he whispered sadly, "They killed all my friends."

Mikey turned around to see how Yondu would react to this. The blue Ravager seemed stone-faced and said nothing for a brief moment. Then he ordered, "Get the third quadrant ready for release."

Kraglin took a deep breath, straightened up, and pounded his chest in respect to his captain before handing Groot to Mikey.

Rocket stood up. "One more thing. You got any clones of Quill's old music on the ship?"

Mikey grinned from ear to ear. "Awwww, yeah."

Kraglin just looked at the two confused.

...

Through all the speakers in the entire ship, the song "Come A Little Bit Closer" by Jay and the Americans played loudly, much to the confusion of the other Ravagers.

Two men who were in charge of guarding the cell opened the doors and stepped inside, and to their shock and horror, Yondu was sitting in a chair with his new fin being installed by Rocket.

Before the men could even raise their guns, Yondu whistled and in a blink of an eye, his magical arrow pierced right through them both. Yondu caught the arrow and casually walked past the bodies with Rocket, Groot, and Mikey following close behind. Rocket stopped for a second to steal a gun from one of the dead Ravagers.

In the captain's quarters, Taserface, who had been sleeping in Yondu's personal bed, awoke with a startle and noticed that the fin was missing from the drawer. He got up and pushed a button on the wall.

 _He's got it!_ his frantic voice spoke over the intercom, alerting the other Ravagers. _Yondu's got the fin!_

Immediately, the other Ravagers spread out and searched for Yondu throughout the ship. The first group to reach him were also the first to be pierced by the arrow.

Yondu pushed a door open and the four stepped onto a catwalk, one of dozens in the huge docking bay. There were over twenty Ravagers that stood on the other catwalks all around them. One of them spotted Yondu below him and yelled, "Down there!"

Yondu whistled a tune and the arrow flew up and down, fowards and backwards, piercing eveything in its way. Mikey watched in awe as the Ravagers who stood above them all dropped like flies. This Yondu guy was a badass.

Groot, who had been riding on Yondu's shoulder, looked up and spotted a Ravager whom he recognized as one of the men who had stomped on him earlier. He was also wearing Mikey's nunchucks on his belt.

"I Am Groot!" Groot yelled as he pointed to the Ravager.

Mikey looked up and saw his nunchucks. "Hey!" he shouted. "Those are mine!"

The frightened Ravager fled and Groot used his vines to latch onto the catwalk and pull himself up. With a cute roaring sound, the little tree creature ran after his tormentor. The man was too busy looking back at Groot as he ran to notice Mikey ahead of him. Just as he turned his head, the Turtle punched him hard, knocking him out.

"I'll take those," he said to the unconscious as he grabbed his nunchucks. "Thank you." He picked up Groot and put him on his shoulder before he lept off the catwalk to join the others.

The group walked into the security dock, where there were security monitors that showed Ravagers searching for them from every part of the ship. Yondu watched the monitors as he whistled, and the arrow flew through the wall and struck every single Ravager.

Rocket noticed a Ravager that was about to reach one of the dock's doors from outside and he aimed his gun in that direction. The blast went right through the door and hit the Ravager, instantly killing him. An evil grin formed on Rocket's lips and he laughed like a kid having fun on the playground as he continued to fire through the doors and walls, killing many Ravagers. Yondu joined in on the laughter, watching in satisfaction as the Ravagers on the screen continued to drop.

Mikey safely stood in the space between the two, feeling very scared at the moment and clutching Groot close to his plastron.

Groot just smiled obliviously the entire time, thinking it was all a game.

Yondu stopped laughing when he spotted Taserface on one of the screens. With a scowl on his face, he stepped closer to the monitor and whistled a tune that was angrier than the ones before.

As Taserface marched down the hall with a large gun in his hands, the arrow darted from around the corner and came straight at him. Yondu did another tune and the arrow burst into flames. Taserface actually managed to jump out of the way in time and laughed pridefully. But as he turned around, the smile on his face faded when he realized that he wasn't the target.

The burning arrow hit a giant tank, which exploded and the flames completely engulfed him.

From inside the dock, Mikey and Rocket both stared dumbfounded at the screens as every part of the ship exploded.

"Oh, crud," Mikey squeaked as he pulled his head halfway into his shell.

"You _maniac_ ," Rocket gasped. "The whole ship's gonna blow."

But Yondu grinned. "Not the _whole_ ship." He summoned his arrow back to him with a whistle and put it in his pocket. Mikey and Rocket quickly followed him out of the dock and to the third quadrant, where Kraglin was waiting for them.

"Release the quadrant," Yondu ordered.

"Aye, Captain!" Kraglin quickly pulled latches and flipped switches on the flight controls.

Meanwhile, Taserface, who had miraculously survived the first explosion but was badly burnt, weakly made his way to a screen and punched in a code.

A member of the Sovereign appeared on the screen. _Who is this?_ she asked.

"I am sending you the coordinates for Yondu's ship," Taserface gruffly said as he tapped in more numbers and sent them to the Sovereign's database. "I only ask one thing: that your High Priestess tell him the name of the man what sealed his fate... _Taserface_."

The woman stared at him for a brief moment before she snickered, and then to Taserface's chagrin, she doubled over with laughter.

Taserface rolled his eyes and groaned right before a second explosion engulfed him.

After Kraglin pulled the final latch, the entire rear upper quadrant detached itself from the rest of the ship right before the explosions could reach them and sailed away.

Mikey stood next to Kraglin in front of the large window and chuckled in amazement. "Dude, this is _awesome_."

"Where to, Captain?" Kraglin asked Yondu.

From his seat, Rocket pulled up the navigation panel and set the destination. "Ego."

Yondu, who sat opposite of Rocket, looked over at the raccoon in horror. "NO, BOY!"

The ship drove straight into a jump point up ahead and drove through various locations throughout the galaxy in a matter of seconds.

Yondu grunted as he again turned to Rocket, his face slowly distorting. "It ain't healthy for a mammalian body to hop more than 50 jumps at a time," he said through gritted teeth.

"I know that," Rocket said, his own face twisting a bit.

"We're about to do 700!"

Rocket became worried and clutched the arms of his seat. Groot, who was sitting on Rocket's shoulder, whimpered and huddled close to the raccoon.

"Hey, what about reptilian?" Mikey asked Yondu, feeling like someone was morphing his face as if it were Play-Doh. "I'll be okay, right?"

"No!" Yondu yelled. "It's even WORSE for a reptilian!"

Mikey's heart dropped. "Ohhhhh nnnnnnooooo...!"

The ship picked up speed and everyone screamed as their faces stretched and morphed. It didn't hurt, but it didn't feel great, either. The more jump points they went through, the worse their stomachs felt.

Mikey would never look into a funhouse mirror again after this.


	8. Chapter 8

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

 _ **Ego's Planet**_

Leo gazed at all the planet's beauty from a high balcony, but his heart was still heavy with worry.

Even though he was supposed to be relaxing in this magnificent paradise, he couldn't stop thinking about Mikey. He just had to make sure that his little brother was all right, otherwise he would never be at peace. So he was going to ask Gamora to contact Rocket and check on the group back on Berhert. He could be overreacting, but he could live with that, as long as he knew that Mikey was safe.

He left the balcony and walked back inside to look for Gamora, but as he went down the stairs, he suddenly heard her angry voice screaming, "I don't know what _Cheers_ is!" Just as he reached the bottom of the stairs, the green-skinned woman came storming out of a room and didn't seem to notice him.

"Gamora?" a concerned Leo called out to her, catching her attention.

Gamora stopped for a moment to close her eyes and take a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Leo," she said in a calmer tone that still sounded angry. "I need to be alone for a while."

"What happened?" Leo asked her, but she ignored him and continued on her way, slamming a door behind her. He sighed exasperatedly and flung his arms in the air. What now?

...

"What was I thinking?" he mumbled to himself as he walked into a field of beautiful flowers that constantly changed colors. It was like walking on a rainbow, yet he was too upset to focus on the beauty around him. "We should never have left home. I almost got Mikey killed." He shook his head. "No. It's all that raccoon's fault. How can I trust him to take care of Mikey? He's a bad influence, and he doesn't care about anyone other than himself. And still Mikey wants to go with _him_ and leave _us_ behind."

He could feel the pent up anger within him rise again at the thought of Mikey stepping into the Guardians' ship and leaving his family back on Earth.

He kicked a couple of flowers off the ground and lifted his head to the sky. "What am I doing wrong?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs with his hands curled into fists. "What can I do to make you stay?! Why can't you just talk to me anymore?!"

Once he was done with his outburst and had regained his composure, he sighed heavily and sat down, resting his arms on his knees. "Father," he whispered in a broken voice, "I'm trying my best, but it's not enough." As he prayed to Splinter's spirit, he could feel his eyelids getting heavier. "I'm just so...tired. I don't know what to do anymore."

Before he even realized it, he was laying himself down on the grass and closing his eyes. "I just want...things to be...the way...before..."

He became silent as he fell into a deep slumber, unaware that some red glowing vines were growing out of the soil and wrapping themselves around the Turtle.

...

"...eo? Leo? Yo, dude, wake up!"

He felt someone lightly slap his cheeks and fluttered his eyes open. He was suddenly back in his own bed and Mikey was standing over him with a big grin on his face.

"Morning, Sleeping Ugly!" the youngest Turtle giggled. "You overslept. Splinter is so gonna chew your head off."

Leo blinked a couple of times before he rubbed his eyes. "Mikey...?" he yawned. Then he blue eyes popped open in realization. "Wait. Did you say...Splinter is here?"

Mikey raised an eye ridge in confusion. "Um...yeah? He's always been here, bro. He's in the dojo right now with Raph and Donnie."

The oldest Turtle began to stammer as he looked at his surroundings. "But-But I don't...he-he can't..." It looked like his bedroom, nothing unusual about it. Was he truly home? Or was this all just a dream?

"You okay, bro?" Mikey tilted his head. "You seem weirded out about something."

Without answering his brother, Leo jumped out of the bed and ran out of his room, making a beeline for the dojo. He slid the doors open and was dumbfounded to see Splinter lecturing to Raph and Donnie, who were kneeling down before him.

The rat turned his head to the entrance and looked directly at Leo with those same brown eyes that he had missed so much. "You are late, Leonardo," he said with some surprise in his voice. "This is not like you."

Leo opened his mouth to speak but all that came out were choked up gasps, his eyes beginning to burn with tears. He wanted to believe that this was real, that Splinter was really standing in front of him. But it couldn't be; they watched him die and buried him in North Hampton.

"Well, that's a first," Raph chuckled in amusement. "Our Leader in Blue overslept."

Donnie, on the other hand, seemed a little worried about his brother. "Are you feeling all right, Leo? You need coffee or an energy drink?"

"I-I..." All Leo could do was stare at Splinter, his legs wobbling so much that he felt that he was going to drop right there and then. "I'm just...so confused." He managed to wobble over to Splinter, who was puzzled by his son's strange behavior. "Father," Leo looked up at the rat with trembling wet eyes, "is it really you?"

"Of course, my son," Splinter said with a raised eyebrow. He touched his son's forehead to feel his temperature. "Are you not feeling well?"

Leo gasped softly at the touch. It was warm, and more importantly, it was _real_. With a sob, he wrapped his arms around Splinter and pulled him into a tight embrace.

Splinter raised his brow and ears in surprise, then he placed his hand on the dome of Leo's head in comfort, gently stroking it. He could feel the Turtle's body shaking as he continued to weep softly. "Leonardo, what is the matter?"

Hesitantly, Leo broke away and dried his eyes. "I'm sorry, it's just..." He chuckled tearfully and smiled at his father. "I had the worst nightmare last night. It felt like it went on forever."

There was a flicker of understanding in Splinter's eyes and he nodded before he turned to Raph and Donatello. "Boys, you are excused. I must speak with Leonardo alone."

The two Turtles bowed to their Sensei and walked out of the dojo, though Raph gently patted Leo on his shell on the way out.

"Sit with me, Leonardo," Splinter knelt down on the mat under the tree and motioned for Leo to come, "and tell me all about this nightmare."

Leo sighed softly as he knelt down on the other mat next to his father. "It's very long and complicated."

"Take your time," Splinter said softly.

The Turtle took a deep breath. "Well, I dreamt that the Shredder mutated himself into a monster, and soon after that he..." He gulped and closed his eyes. "...he killed you right in front of us. We buried you and avenged your death, and we tried to move on. But our family just fell apart without you. I did my best, but it was just too hard." He looked back up at his father with hopeful eyes. "But it was all just a dream...right? You're not dead, and we're still together."

Splinter hummed softly as he rubbed his beard in thought. "Your nightmare seems to be the result of your inner turmoil and fears. I understand that it is a heavy burden to be the leader as well as the next clan master, and I can't help but feel partly responsible for your anxiety and restlessness. For that, I apologize."

Leo shook his head. "No, Sensei. You don't have to apologize for anything. If anyone should apologize it's me. I took on the role of leader without really thinking about the responsibilities that came with it. I guess I'll never be ready."

"You _are_ ready, Leonardo, even if you do not believe in yourself. You are not perfect, but I do not expect you to be, and neither should you. I only expect you to do your very best, and so far, you have not disappointed me." Splinter stood back up and walked over to the shrine. "But nevertheless, you must be prepared for the day I do pass on. I will not be here forever." He longingly brushed his fingers over the picture of Tang Shen. "Death comes to us all, and we can never prevent that."

"I know, Sensei," Leo said, then he quickly changed the subject and stood up. "Well, now that I'm awake, I'm gonna make myself some breakfast."

Mikey suddenly poked his head in the dojo with a huge smile. "Did somebody say 'breakfast'? Leave that to the culinary maestro!"

...

"Breakfast is-a served, Monsignors!" Mikey announced in a fake French accent as he placed on the table plates with a pile of French toast on each one. The top toast on each pile had a smiley face made with a whipped cream smile and two strawberry eyes (except Donnie's which had blueberry eyes since he didn't like strawberries).

Splinter chuckled as he gazed down at his artfully prepared breakfast. "As usual, you start the day with smiles, Michelangelo."

Mikey beamed. "Thanks, Sensei."

As Leo sat down at the table, he looked around at his family. Everyone seemed so happy. Raph cut a small slice of his breakfast for Chompy, who chirped in delight at the taste. Donnie had a blissful look on his face as he took a sip of his daily coffee. Splinter continued to praise Mikey for his work of art. Mikey happened to glance over at Leo and grinned from ear to ear.

Leo smiled back at him, overwhelmingly relieved that he was finally out of that nightmare and back in the real world. Everything was going to be all right.

* * *

Gamora sat alone in a field, still fuming. She couldn't even hear herself think with the annoying clicking sound that two tall plants were making as they flittered against each other in the wind. She couldn't take it anymore and sliced them in half with her sword.

She sighed heavily and muttered to herself, "Dammit."

Quill was so enamored with this place, but something about it disturbed Gamora. She couldn't explain it, but it just didn't feel right. Earlier she tried to get him to see that all of this was a fantasy, but he instead got angry and accused her of trying to ruin everything for him. She could still hear him saying those words, _I finally found my family! Don't you understand that?_

If that's how he really felt, then what did the other Guardians mean to him? What did _she_ mean to him?

A low whirring sound in the distance broke her from her thoughts and turned around. Flying toward the planet was an M-ship, and as it got closer, Gamora realized that it was coming directly at _her_ , and the pilot was a furious, bloodthirsty Nebula.

Gamora got up and ran as fast as she could as the ship began to fire at her. "Psychopath!" she growled.

She sought refuge in a cavern that led down into earth, but Nebula, mad with rage, still pursued her. The ship was too large for the cavern and its wings were destroyed as it entered, but Nebula kept on going, firing at Gamora.

The ground collasped around Gamora and she fell to another level just as the ship darted over her and crashed into a wall. Lying on the ground next to Gamora was one of the ship's enormous blasters and she wasted no time in picking it up and activating it, intent on blasting her sister to oblivion.

From inside the already damaged ship, Nebula watched helplessly as Gamora aimed the blaster at her.

With a battle cry, Gamora fired at the ship until it exploded. Through the flames, she could see that Nebula was miraculously still alive and struggling to free herself from her seat, but both her legs were broken.

Gamora knew that the ship would soon explode again and then that would be the end of Nebula for sure. She could've walked away and left her sister to her fate, but she could not bring herself to do it, and against her better judgement, she ran to the burning ship and crawled inside to grab Nebula.

Just as Gamora pulled her sister out, the ship exploded once again and sent them both flying. They landed a few feet away from the burning wreckage, badly injured but safe, and Nebula's broken parts cracked back into place, one of the few perks to being part machine. She slowly lifted her face to her Gamora and stared at her with her large dark eyes. Gamora stared back, hoping that her sister would be grateful to her for saving her life and that their war with each other would finally end.

But then Nebula hollered and pinned Gamora to the ground, trying to strangle her.

"Are you _kidding_ me?!" Gamora yelled as she kicked her off.

The two struggled and fought with each other until Nebula grabbed Gamora by the throat with one hand and raised her blade with the other. Gamora gasped for breath, close to losing consciousness, and Nebula prepared to stab her right through her heart.

Then Leo's words from the other night echoed in Nebula's mind, _You'll_ always _be sisters. And there's nothing in the universe more important than family._

Nebula clenched the dagger tighter as she struggled to win against her conscience. This was what she wanted...right?

"...RRRAAAAAH!" She angrily threw Gamora to the ground and put her blade away. "I win," she hissed. "I win. I bested you in combat."

Gamora coughed and shook her head. "No," she gasped and rubbed her throat. "I saved your life."

Nebula snarled at her. "Well, you were stupid enough to let me live."

" _You_ let _me_ live!"

"I don't need you always trying to beat me!"

"I'm not the one that just flew across the universe just because I wanted to win!"

"Do _not_ tell me what I want!"

"I don't need to tell you what you want! It's obvious!"

"You were the one who wanted to win, AND I JUST WANTED A _SISTER_!" Nebula screamed in her face.

Gamora looked at her shocked, taken back by this outburst.

Nebula lowered her head, unable to look at her sister in the eye. "You were all I had," she said in a quiet voice that was filled with so pain. "But you were the one who needed to win. Thanos pulled my eye from my head...and my brain from my skull...and my arm from my body...because of _you_."

All of the pieces were finally coming together for Gamora. Since she and Nebula were children, Thanos trained them to be the most powerful wariors in all the galaxy. Gamora knew that she had to win in order to survive, because Thanos would destroy her if she couldn't prove her worth to him. So she won every single battle against Nebula, and as the years passed, Nebula became more machine than woman. Gamora always believed that Nebula replaced her body parts with robotics to improve herself so that she would finally win. But it was Thanos who did this to her.

Gamora lowered her gaze to the ground in shame, not knowing what to say to her sister.

...

They eventually agreed to a truce and explored the rest of the dark caverns, but neither one of them said a word to each other as they walked. The glowing red vines that spread all over the walls provided them with light, but then something caught Gamora's eye. Something green.

She moved closer to the wall and could see something green through a small crack. She lightly scratched at it, and it felt warm and scaly and-

Gamora's eyes became large. "Oh, my god."

She frantically began to dig at the walls, and a confused Nebula just stood by and watched. The dirt and rocks collapsed as she worked, revealing an unconsciousness Leo in the wall, bound by the glowing red vines. Some of them were actually sticking into his arms, legs, and neck like IV lines.

The caverns were consuming him.

"LEO!" Gamora began to pull at the vines, but they were too strong to break.

* * *

The four Turtles and their master stood on a rooftop, the full moon hanging high above their heads. Standing before them was an exhausted and beaten Oroku Saki, who looked like he was about to collapse. He was still human and hadn't mutated yet, but of course, that only happened in Leo's dream.

Splinter stepped forward. "You leave me no choice, Saki," he said with some sadness in his voice. "I had hoped that it wouldn't come to this."

The Shredder glared at him through the kabuto. "You will _never_ defeat me, Yoshi," he growled. "I _will_ have my revenge."

Narrowing his eyes in determination, Splinter charged at the Shredder, took one big leap, kicked him with full force. Saki screamed as he fell off the building and to his death below, and the silence that followed made Leo shudder, but it had to be done.

Splinter turned to his sons and smiled. They were finally free of the Shredder.

"I...I can't believe it's finally over," Donnie said to his brothers.

Raph nodded. "I know, but it is."

"So...what happens now?" Mikey asked.

Splinter walked back to his sons. "What happens next, Michelangelo, is that we go home." He turned to Leo and smiled warmly as he touched him on the shoulder. "Together."

With a heart full of joy, Leo nodded. "Right." He followed his family to rooftop entrance, eager to get back home.

* * *

"AARGH!" Gamora yelled in frustration as she continued to pull at the vines. She finally gave up and pulled out her sword. With one swipe, she cut through four vines all at once.

* * *

The building suddenly began to shake tremendously and the Hamato family cried out in unison as they all lost their ballance and tripped.

"W-W-W-What's happening?!" Mikey frantically cried out.

For a less than a minute, the entire building shook, then it suddenly stopped. Everyone froze and held their breath, and when nothing happened, they released a sigh of relief.

"It was probably just an earthquake," Donnie suggested.

* * *

"LEO, WAKE UP!" Gamora screamed as she cut through more vines.

Nebula finally joined in and helped her sister free the sleeping Turtle with her own blade.

* * *

Everyone nearly jumped out of their skins when thunder suddenly roared and shook the whole earth. Mikey looked up and his eyes became as wide as saucers. "Look!" he yelled as he pointed to the sky. Everyone else followed his gaze and gasped.

To Leo's bewilderment, the sky seemed to crack open, a great white light peeking through and shining down upon them. It was so bright that he had to shield his eyes with his hand.

 _LEO!_

Wait. That voice. It sounded like..."Gamora?" He turned to his brothers. "Guys, do you hear that?" he yelled to them.

"Hear what?" Raph yelled.

Gamora's voice called out to him once again. _LEO! WAKE UP!_

Leo looked at his surroundings. Everything was literally falling apart. Buildings were collasping all around them. More and more pieces of the sky were dropping down to the city below. To his dismay, he realized that _this_ was the dream. Splinter was really gone. Mikey was still going to leave the family. It was time for him to wake up and come back to the real world, but he didn't want to.

"Leo?"

He turned around and Mikey looked at him with a scared expression. "What's going on?"

Even though he knew that this wasn't the real Mikey, he felt love for him just the same and gently touched the other Turtle's freckled cheek. "Mikey," he said softly with a sad smile, "I haven't felt this happy in a long time. Everything seemed perfect. We were a family again."

From behind Mikey, Leo could see a monstrous heavily spiked figure climb onto the rooftop. Super Shredder glared at the family with his terrible glowing blue eyes.

Leo swallowed hard and redirected his attention to Mikey. "But none of this is real, as much as I want it to be. I can't pretend that you're happy when you're really not."

Splinter charged at Super Shredder, but the latter drove his claws right through the former's body. Raph and Donnie screamed in anguish as Saki lifted the limp rat and tossed him off the building like a rag doll.

Leo's eyes filled with tears. "I'm so sorry, bro. I tried my best, but I still failed both you and Splinter. I just want you to be happy again..." He hugged his little brother, hot tears flowing down his cheeks. "...even if that means letting you go."

Raph and Donnie were both knocked down by the Shredder, who then focused his attention on Leo and Mikey and stomped toward them menacingly.

Unafraid, Leo gently pushed Mikey away and unsheathed his swords, preparing to face his adversary. His eyes became white as he narrowed them. "You're not real. It's time to wake up."

With a roar, the Shredder charged straight at him. Leo did the same, ready to cut through this illusion. He swung his katanas with all his strength...

* * *

He woke up screaming and fell right into Gamora's arms.

All of the vines throughout the caverns pulled back into the walls, disappearing and leaving the trio in darkness.

Leo started to hyperventilate as he was being held by Gamora. He was disoriented and badly shaken from the experience, but he quickled calmed down after Gamora gently shushed him and soothingly rubbed his shell.

"Shhh," Gamora whispered to him. "It's okay. It's okay, Leo. You're safe now."

"What kind of a planet is this?" Nebula asked her sister, clearly disturbed by what she had just seen.

"I'll explain later," Gamora told her as she helped a still weak Leo back on his feet and supported him. "We need to get him out of these caverns now."

As Nebula rested Leo's other arm over her shoulder, he looked at her groggily. "Nebula?" he rasped. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story," she mumbled, too tired to explain it all to him.

The three headed toward a light that they believed to be the exit. But as they got closer, they realized that they had walked into a dead end and that the light was being emitted from vines that were even larger than the ones that grabbed Leo.

And then they made another horrifying discovery: piles of skeletons that belonged to various alien species, hundreds, maybe even thousands of them.

"Oh, my god," Gamora whispered in horror.

"What happened to them?" Leo gasped.

Nebula stared at the graveyard with eyes filled with fear. "We need to get off this planet."


	9. Chapter 9

**NOTE:** **There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

Quill couldn't sleep that night. He just lay on a couch, staring blanky at the ceiling of his bedroom while listening to "Brandy" on his Walkman.

Part of him wanted to believe Gamora that this place was too good to be true, but he wanted to trust Ego; he was his Dad, after all, and he would never intentionally hurt his own son, right?

Just then Ego appeared at the doorway. "You alright, son?"

Quill took off his headphones and looked up at his father.

"I saw your girl stomp off a little earlier in quite a huff," Ego said as he pointed down the hall.

"Yeah," Quill sighed softly.

Ego sat on a chair across from Quill. "It's fortuitous, you listening to this song."

"You know...?"

"'Brandy'?" Ego nodded with a smile. "By Looking Glass? A favorite of your Mom's. One of Earth's greatest musical compositions. Perhaps its very greatest."

Quill nodded excitedly in agreement. "Yes!"

"Peter, you and I, we're the sailor in that song." Ego stood up and slowly walked toward Quill. "He came on a summer's day. Bringing gifts from far away. Like the child I put in your mother or the freedom you brought Gamora. Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a good wife you would be. My life, my love, my lady is the sea."

He sat down on the couch next to his son. "The sea calls the sailor back. He loves the girl, but that's not his place. The sea calls upon him as history calls upon great men. And sometimes we are deprived the pleasures of mortals."

"Well, you may not be mortal," Quill said, "but me-"

"No, Peter, death will remain a stranger to both of us as long as the light burns within the planet."

Quill looked at his father skeptically and scoffed. "I'm immortal?"

Ego grinned from ear to ear and nodded. "Mmm-hmm."

Quill's eyes went big when he realized that his father wasn't kidding around. "Really?"

"Yes. As long as the light exists."

"And I can use the light to build cool things like how you made this whole planet?"

"It might take you a few million years of practice before you could get really good at it, but yes!"

Quill stood up, feeling as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. "What! This is...! Get ready for an 800-foot statue of Pac-Man with Skeletor and Heather Locklear!"

Ego chuckled. "Whatever you want!"

"I'm gonna make some weird sh**!"

"But you know, Peter," Ego also stood up, "it is a tremendous responsibility. Only we can remake the universe. Only we can take the bridle of the cosmos and lead it to where it needs to go."

Quill looked at his father intrigued. "How?"

Ego ignited a little blue light in his hand. "Come with me."

...

The two stepped into the room with all the dioramas that told the origin of Ego.

"Now, you need to readjust the way you process life," Ego explained to Quill. "Everything around us, including the girl, everything is temporary. We are forever."

"Doesn't eternity get boring?" Quill asked.

"Not if you have a purpose, Peter, which is why you're here." Ego led him to the diorama of Ego meeting a life form for the first time. "I told you how all those years ago, I had an unceasing impulse to find life. But what I did not tell you was how when I finally did find it, it was all so...disappointing."

Quill looked at his father confused.

"And that is when I came to a profound realization. My innate desire to seek out other life was not so that I could walk among that life. Peter, I have found meaning." Ego then gently tapped his son's forehead.

Quill gasped softy as his eyes were suddenly filled with endless cosmos. He no longer felt like a puny, weak human with limits. His inner Celestial had completely taken over his entire being and it was incredible. He felt like he could hold the entire universe in his hand.

"I...I see it," he whispered. "Eternity!"

* * *

"GET ME OFF THIS RIDE!" Mikey screamed as Yondu's ship continued to go through jump points. His face continued to twist and stretch and he was getting sicker by the minute.

Everyone else was suffering as much as he was and screamed along with him. But after what felt like hours, the ship finally stopped in front of Ego's planet and the entire crew dropped to their knees utterly exhausted. Except for Groot, who remained in his seat and barfed out a green slime.

Mikey was about to throw up, himself, but he quickly swallowed it back down. "Looks like," he panted heavily as he looked out the huge window, "we've arrived at our destination."

Yondu was beyond pissed at Rocket. "What the hell you doing, boy?!" he bellowed.

The raccoon struggled to get back on his feet. "I could tell how much you talked about him, this Ego is bad news. We're here to save Quill."

"For what?" Yondu scoffed. "Huh? For honor? For love?"

"Yes," Mikey said as he weakly stood back up.

But Rocket had a different answer. "No! I don't care about those things! I'm gonna save Quill so that I can prove I'm better than him! I can lord this over him forever!"

Mikey sighed and shook his head. Typical Rocket, always trying to hide his real feelings by acting like the tough and uncaring guy.

Just then Yondu started to laugh, much to Rocket's confusion.

"What are you laughing at me for?" the raccoon asked the blue man.

"Ah," Yondu sighed as he walked toward the window. "You can fool yourself and everyone else, but you can't fool me. I know who you are."

"You don't know anything about me, loser," Rocket said in annoyance.

Yondu turned back to him. "I know everything about you. I know you play like you're the meanest and the hardest, but actually you're the most scared of all."

Rocket was starting to get uncomfortable. "Shut up!"

But Yondu continued on with his lecture. "I know you steal batteries you don't need and you push away anyone who's willing to put up with you 'cause just a little bit of love reminds you how big and empty that hole inside you actually is."

A stunned Mikey looked on in silence. Yondu really did get Rocket better than anyone else.

Rocket was now trembling but he refused to show that Yondu was getting to him. "I said shut up!" he yelled.

Yondu started to raise his own voice. "I know them scientists what made you never gave a rat's ass about you!"

Now Rocket couldn't hold back the tears. "I'M SERIOUS, DUDE!" he screamed.

"Just like my own damn parents who sold me, their own little baby into slavery!" Yondu leaned down to yell in Rocket's face, "I know who you are, boy, because you're _me_!"

There was dead silence in the cockpit for a moment. Rocket and Yondu stared at each other, their noses almost touching. Mikey wanted to go over to the raccoon and give him a hug, but he decided that it would best to give him some space.

Rocket swallowed and blinked back his tears. "What kind of a pair are we?" he said softly.

Yondu nodded and walked toward the controls of the ship. "The kind that's about to go fight a planet, I reckon." He then turned to Mikey. "What do you say, Turtle? You in or out?"

Mikey smiled confidently and crossed his arms. "You kidding? I'm 100% in! Nothing is too big or too scary for me, not even a..." The smile dropped. "Wait. Did you say 'planet'?"

* * *

"Gamora, wait!" Leo tried to catch up with the green-skinned warrior, but he was still weak from the near-death experience in the caverns. Nebula was right behind him and she would help the Turtle every time he stumbled from the fatigue.

Gamora hurried down the halls of the palace until she reached the room in which Drax was staying, and to her suprise, Mantis was there, too. She instantly grabbed the girl by the neck and pushed her against the wall. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

Leo walked in and was horrified to see Gamora choking Mantis. "Gamora! Stop!"

But Gamora paid no attention to him. "Who are you people?!" she yelled in Mantis's face. "What is this place?!"

"Gamora, let her go!" Drax shouted.

"The bodies in the caverns, who are they?!"

Mantis looked at her with eyes full of fear, then he atennae started to glow. "You are scared," she whispered.

Immedatiely, Gamora let go of her and stumbled backwards, visibly shaken.

A worried Leo gently touched her arm. "Gamora? Gamora, what's wrong?"

Gamora breathed heavily as she looked down at her trembling hands. "What did she do to me?" she whimpered.

Now Leo was even more scared then he was before. Gamora was a strong and fearless woman, but to see her this frightened and fragile...

He turned to Mantis, who was coughing and rubbing her throat. "Start talking!" he demanded. "Or you'll be dealing with me!"

Drax stepped forward. "Calm yourself, Leonardo."

Leo looked at the tattooed man in disbelief, but of course he didn't know about the skeletons. "Drax, listen, in the caverns, there are thousands of-"

"She already told me everything."

Leo froze. "What?"

"The bodies," Mantis said softly, "are his children."

* * *

Back in the main hall, holograms of planets were now hovering above Ego and Quill, and each planet had a tiny spot of blue light glowing on one area. There were so many planets and lights that they looked like stars.

"I call it the Expansion," Ego said. "It is my purpose and now it is yours as well."

"It's beautiful," Quill whispered, still in a euphoric trance.

A diorama of a younger Ego planting a strange flower appeared before them. "Over thousands of years, I implanted thousands of extensions of myself on thousands of worlds. I need to fulfill life's one true purpose: to grow and spread, covering all that exists, until everything is... _me_."

The tiny blue lights suddenly expanded and completely covered the planets.

"I only had one problem. A single Celestial doesn't have enough power for such an enterprise. But two Celestials...well, now, that just might do."

Ego then walked toward another dioarama that portayed his younger self embracing women of various alien species. "Out of all my labors, the most beguiling was attempting to graft my DNA with that of another species. I hoped that the result of such a coupling would be enough to power the Expansion. I had Yondu deliver some of them to me. It broke the Ravager code, but I compensated him generously, and to ease his conscience, I said I'd never hurt them."

He started to scratch his chin nonchalantly. "I mean, that was true. They never felt a thing. But one after the other, they failed me. Not one of them carried the Celestial genes."

He smiled then proudly at Quill. "Until you, Peter. Out of all my spawn, only you carried the connection to the light."

* * *

After Mantis told the crew the whole story, Gamora turned to her friends. "We need to find Peter now," she growled, "and get off this damn planet."

"Ego will have won him to his side by now," Mantis informed her. "He has a way."

"Then we just go," Nebula suggested.

"No!" Gamora sternly told her sister. "He's our friend."

"That's right," Leo nodded. "We can't leave him behind, Nebula."

"All any of you do is yell at each other," Nebula argued. "You are not friends."

"You're right," Drax told her, then he turned to Gamora. "We're family. We leave no one behind." He looked back at Nebula. "Except maybe you."

Leo stepped over to Nebula and put his hand on her shoulder. "No, Drax," he said. "That includes Nebula."

Drax glanced away with a pouty expression. "Fine," he grumbled. "The blue whore can come with us."

"Oh, my god," Nebula sighed in exasperation as she shook her head.

* * *

As Yondu, Rocket, and Mikey hurried down the hallways throughout the ship, something fell out of Yondu's coat pocket and landed on the floor. Mikey stopped to bend down and pick up, and to his surpise, it was a Troll Doll with orange hair. It had to have belonged to Quill since dolls only come from Earth.

"Hey!" Mikey called after Yondu. "Hey, Yondu!" The captain stopped and turned around. "You dropped this."

Yondu walked back to Mikey and took the doll back without saying a word.

"That belonged to Quill, didn't it?" Mikey asked.

Yondu just nodded as he stared down at the doll.

"You really care about him, don't you?"

There was a brief pause before Yondu shook his head. "Nah. The boy owes me four billion units."

Mikey chuckled. Yondu and Rocket were totally alike. "Yeah, sure. It's just, I keep thinking about what Kraglin said back on Berhert. Quill dupes you all the time, but you keep defending him. And yeah, you may had kidnapped him for money, but then you found out what Ego was up to. You could've just abandoned him after that, but you kept him instead. You took him under your wing and raised him."

"What's your point, Turtle?" Yondu grumbled.

"My point is, Quill had his Dad with him all along, he just didn't know it."

Yondu looked at Mikey surprised, then he chuckled and shook his head. "You're talking nonsense."

"No, I'm being serious. Ego may be his father and all..." Mikey patted Yondu on the arm with a warm smile. "...but he's not his Dad."

Yondu furrowed his brow in confusion. "What's the difference?"

Before Mikey could answer that question, Rocket yelled at them from down the hallway. "Hey! You two idiots coming or what?"

"Coming, trash panda!" Mikey laughed as he walked away from Yondu.

"DON'T CALL ME TRASH PANDA!"

Yondu stayed behind for a moment to look at the Troll in his hand. He thought about the scrawny little kid he abducted over twenty years ago, his eyes puffy and red from crying, holding his Walkman close to his chest. It seemed like it was only yesterday that he was teaching the boy how to fire a gun in the woods of Aakon. Quill had always been a fast learner and a hard worker, and although Yondu would never say it, he was proud of that smart-mouth, music-loving kid.

And now that same scrawny little boy needed him more than ever.

* * *

"For the first time in my existence," Ego lifted his head to the ceiling with a triumphant smile on his face, "I am truly NOT ALONE!"

He looked back at Quill, who now seemed sad and conflicted and was staring down at his feet.

"What is it, son?" he asked.

Quill slowly lifted his face. "My friends," he whispered.

Ego nodded, understanding his son's feelings. "You see, that's the mortal in you, Peter."

"Yes."

"We are beyond such things."

"Yes."

"Good. Now-"

"But my mother...you said you loved my mother."

Ego now seemed a bit somber. "And that I did," he said softly as he looked back up at the ceiling. "My river lily who knew all the words to every song that came over the radio. I returned to Earth to see her three times. And I knew if I returned a fourth, I'd never leave. The Expansion, the reason for my very existence, would be over. So I did what I had to do." He then released a heavy sigh and said, "But...it broke my heart to put that tumor in her head."

The cosmos in Quill's eyes disappeared as soon as his father said those horrible words. "...what?"

Ego immediately knew that he mucked up and turned back to Quill with a nervous grin. "Now-Now alright, I know that sounds bad-"

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

An infuriated Quill didn't even let Ego explain as he pulled out his pistols and fired at his father again and again. The blasts tore through Ego's body and his flesh started to disappear, revealing the blue glowing molecules and skeletal form underneath. When Quill saw that it pointless to keep firing, he lowered his guns but was trembling with rage.

Ego's body was full of large wholes but he quickly reformed and he looked at his son annoyed. "Who...in the hell do you think you are?!"

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!" Quill roared.

Ego then transformed into Quill's childhood hero, David Hasselhoff. "I tried so hard to find the form that best suited you, and _this_ is the thanks I get?!"

Quill just glared hatefully at his father.

Ego could see that there was no point in talking and trying to appeal to him anymore and transformed back to his normal self. "You really need to grow up," he growled.

He lifted his hand and a huge tentacle of pure light furiously came out of the ground. Before Quill could run, it pierced right through his chest and the half-Celestial gasped in pain. He dangled helplessly as the tentacle lifted him up, and he could feel his energy quickly being drained from his body.

Ego stomped toward Quill, his eye twitching in anger. "I wanted to do this together, but I suppose you'll have to learn by spending the next thousand years as a _battery_!"


	10. Chapter 10

**NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

 _Beep Beep! Beep Beep!_

The transmitter in Gamora's pocket beeped and she quickly pulled it out and answered it. "Finally! Rocket?"

Rocket's staticky voice came through, _Keep that transmitter nearby so I can find you._

Leo stepped forward. "Rocket, is Mikey with you? Is he okay?"

 _Yeah, he's fine. We're in an old piece of construction equipment Yondu once used to slice open the Bank of A'askavaria._

"Ego's unhinged," Gamora told him.

 _I know. Get ready._

...

In space, a small craft plopped from the Quadrant and flew straight toward Ego's planet. Mikey sat in the seat up front opposite to Yondu, who steered the ship, and as they approached the planet, the Turtle gulped as its red clouds morphed into a huge face with a wrathful expression.

"Dudes?" Mikey whimpered. "Is it just me, or does that planet look...mad?"

...

In the palace, Quill continued to dangle helplessly as the tentacle of pure light continued to drain him of his life force. He could feel himself getting weaker and weaker by the second and slowly lose consciousness.

Ego slowly walked up to him and snatched the Walkman from his belt. He pressed the play button and "Brandy" softly played, the song Meredith loved so much.

Quill shed a single tear, remembering the times he and his mother would sing that song together, before the cancer took her away from him. The cancer her own angel, his father, gave her to save his own hide.

Ego grinned as he listened. " _My life, my love, my lady is the sea._ " He looked up at Quill. "Peter, this...is the sea." And then he crushed the Walkman in his grip right in front of his son, who moaned softly in despair.

The power suddenly surged from Quill, making him scream in pain, and it traveled through the tentacle and throughout the palace. Ego smiled in satisfaction as he felt the all energy reach the planet's vines, which led to the core. It glowed bright blue as it absorbed Quill's power.

...

On various planets throughout the galaxy, the plants that Quill had left behind suddenly burst into explosions of blue light, which immediately transformed into blob-like masses that extended throughout the civilizations and landscapes. Each blob would crush and consume every building, forest and person in its path, ever growing and unstoppable.

On Earth, in the state of Missouri, the plant exploded behind a Dairy Queen and the blob made its way toward a small town.

...

As Ego continued to blissfully bask in the energy, the palace doors were suddenly kicked open and he turned to see Gamora's group running inside. Before he could even react, Yondu's craft crashed through a huge window and headed straight for him.

"BOOYAKASHA!" Mikey cried out in his seat.

"Hey, there, jackass!" Yondu yelled to Ego.

The ship landed right on top of Ego, seemingly crushing him. But Yondu knew that that wouldn't be enough to kill the Celestial; it would only buy them enough time to escape.

As soon as Ego was hit, the tentacle that had a hold of Quill retreated to the underground network of energy. Gamora ran to Quill, who lay on the floor, while Drax, Nebula, Leo, and Mantis headed for the ship. At the entrance door, Groot greeted his friends with a smile and wave.

"Out of the way, dumber, smaller Groot!" Drax yelled as he climbed onto the ship. This made the small tree creature very mad and he kicked and punched at Drax as hard as he could.

Mikey ran to the group as they entered and hugged his brother. "Leo! I'm so happy to see you, bro!"

Leo winced in pain as Mikey squeezed harder, still sore from the cavern incident, but he was just as overjoyed to see his brother again and hugged him back. "Me, too, Mikey."

Meanwhile, Gamora helped Quill up and supported him as they walked to the ship together. "I told you something didn't feel right."

"'I told you so'," Quill muttered. "Just what I need to hear right now."

Inside the ship, Drax continued to berate Rocket. "What are you doing? You could've killed us all!"

Rocket looked at him annoyed. "Uh, 'Thank you, Rocket'?"

"We had it under control!"

Mantis shook her head. "We did not. That is only an extension of his true self. He will back soon."

As Quill and Gamora climbed in, the former noticed Nebula standing by. "What's Smurfette doing here?"

"Whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home," Nebula hissed.

Rocket pointed a finger at her. "She tried to murder me and Mikey!"

"I _saved_ you, you stupid fox!"

"He's not a fox," Gamora corrected her.

"I Am Groot," Groot squeaked.

"I'm not a raboon, either!" Rocket scolded him.

"I Am Groot."

"'Raccoon'. Whatever."

Mikey held his gut as he doubled over and laughed. "'Raboon'? Oh, I'm definitely writing _that_ one down!"

Suddenly more tentacles of light burst out of the ground and surrounded the ship. Leo saw them from one of the windows and turned to Quill. "Is there a way we can destroy Ego?"

"There's a center to him," Quill said. "His brain, his soul, whatever it is. Some sort of protective shell."

"It's in the caverns," Mantis told the group, "below the surface."

Leo shivered at the thought of going back to the caverns, but the lives of his family and friends back on Earth were at stake, so he quickly shook it off.

Quill climbed up a ladder that led to the ship's cockpit and was shocked to see his old boss sitting in the pilot's seat. "Yondu?!"

The ship began to take off, but the tentacles wrapped themselves around it and yanked it back down to the ground.

Yondu grunted as the ship shook violently. "Thrusters are out!"

Thinking quickly, Quill sat down in the other seat and started rewiring the mechanics. "Guess I should be glad I was a skinny kid. Otherwise, you'd have delievered me to this maniac!"

"You still reckon that's the reason I kept you around, you idiot?" Yondu asked him incredulously.

"That's what you told me, you old doofus!"

"Once I figured out what happened to them other kids, I wasn't just gonna hand you over."

"You said you were gonna eat me!"

"That was being funny!"

Quill looked at him flabbergasted. "Not to _me_!"

Leo heard the whole conversation from below and shouted up to them, "Trust me, after nearly getting eaten myself, I can guarantee you that it's _not funny at all!"_

Mikey looked at him surprised. "Wait, something tried to eat you?"

Leo sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. "It's been a long day, Mikey."

"You people have issues," Rocket said as he shook his head.

"Well, of course I have issues!" Quill shouted.

At that very moment, Ego's skeletal form arose from the ground in front of the ship and roared as the skin began to regrow on his head, giving him a frightening look.

"THAT'S MY FREAKIN' _FATHER_!" Quill yelled as he pointed at the monster.

The ship whirred as the thrusters tuned back on and it took off at full speed, going right through Ego and another large window. But as they flew out of the palace, Quill took control of the ship and steered it downward.

"We should be going _up_!" Yondu shouted.

Quill shook his head. "We can't. Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it. We have to kill him." The ship continued to plummet toward a fissure in the earth. "Rocket!"

"Got it!" Rocket activated the ship's lasers, which further opened the crack and allowed them to go underground. As the ship moved, the lasers chipped away the rocks and paved the way for them.

"So, dudes, we're savin' the galaxy again?" Mikey asked the crew. "Right on!"

Rocket laughed as he continued to fire the lasers. "We're really gonna be able to jack up our prices if we're two-time galaxy savers!"

Quill shook his head. "I seriously can't believe _that's_ where your mind goes."

"It was just a random thought, man! I thought we were friends! Of course I care about the planets and the buildings and all the animals on the planets!"

"And the mutants!" Mikey added. "Don't forget the mutants!"

Rocket nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and the mutants!"

"And the people!" Quill also added.

The raccoon paused before he shrugged. "Meh."

...

As the ship continued to drill deeper into the earth, Yondu turned to Quill. "Tell me why Ego wants you here?"

"He needs my genetic connection to the light to help destroy the universe," Quill said. "He tried to teach me how to control the power."

"So could you?"

"A little. I made a ball."

Yondu raised an eye ridge. "A ball?"

Quill shrugged. "I thought as hard as I could. It was all that I could come up with."

"You 'thought'?" Yondu chuckled. "You think when I make this arrow fly, I use my head?"

Before Quill could say anything, the ship suddenly crashed into an overhanging piece of rock and the side door was ripped off in the process. They squeezed through a small space before they finally reached center of the planet.

Mantis looked through one of the windows and pointed to an enormous orb into which all of the blue energy entered through the vines. "There. That's Ego's core."

"That ore is thick, Rocket," Gamora told the raccoon.

"I got it covered." Rocket flipped some switches and all of the smaller lasers came together and formed one big laser in the center of the ship, burning a hole into the metallic material that surrounded the core.

"Are you sure this will work, Quill?" Leo asked.

"We drill into the center, we kill him!" Quill responded.

Meanwhile Mikey looked out through the side opening at the huge network of glowing vines. "Wow," he whispered in awe. And then he saw something that nearly made his eyes bug out of his sockets. "Uh-oh."

Pushing past the others without any explanation, he quickly climbed up into the cockpit and joined Quill and Yondu. "Hey, Quill?"

"What is it, Mikey?" the human said, still focused on the drilling.

"Remember those Sovereign douchebags?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh..." Mikey nervously pointed to something outside.

Both Yondu and Quill looked up to see a fleet of Sovereign ships heading straight toward them.

"Oh, hell!" Yondu yelled.

Quill pulled the ship away from the core as the Soverign fired their blasters at them. One blaster managed to hit the side of the craft which caused it to turn sideways. Gamora, Drax, and Mantis fell through the hole but landed safely on a chasm far below.

"How did those golden turds find us?!" Rocket yelled.

"It must've been Taserface!" Mikey said.

Leo looked at his brother confused. "Taser-who?"

As Quill struggled to avoid the firing crafts, he yelled to Rocket, "Why aren't you firing the laser?"

"They blew out the generator!" Rocket said as he ran to his travel bag on the floor and dug around in it. "I think I packed a small detonator!"

"A detonator is useless without explosives," Nebula said.

Rocket grinned as he pulled out the Anulax batteries. "Well, we got these."

Mikey's eyes went big at the sight of the batteries. "You still have those things? Why not just return them to the Sovereign? They're the reason why those jerks are trying to _kill us in the first place_!"

"It's a little too late for that, Mike!" Rocket yelled angrily.

Quill left Yondu behind in the cockpit and went down the ladder to join the others. "Is that thing strong enough to kill Ego?"

Rocket taped the batteries to the detonator. "If it is, it'll cause a chain reaction throughout his entire nervous system."

"Meaning what?"

"The entire planet will explode. We'll have to get out of here fast. I rigged a timer."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mikey handed Quill and Rocket a couple of Aero-rigs and put one on himself. Groot climbed up his shell and sat on his shoulder. "Let's go kick Ego-maniac's huge butt!"

"Mikey, wait!" Leo ran after him, but the younger Turtle jumped off the ship and flew with Quill and Rocket toward the hole in the core. He watched on nervously as the trio narrowly avoided the gunfire and let out a sigh of relief when they managed to get inside the hole.

Down below, Mantis, Gamora, and Drax stood and watched as the ground started to crack and wall in front of them began to mutate.

"He's coming," Mantis said with dread.

"Didn't you say you could make him sleep?" Drax asked her.

She shook her head. "When _he_ wants! He's too powerful! I can't!"

He gently touched her shoulder. "You don't have to believe in yourself, because _I_ believe in you."

Hearing those words gave her the courage to face the giant face of Ego that was now on the wall. He opened his mouth and released a wave of blue light that was heading straight toward them.

Thinking quickly, Mantis knelt down and touched one of the nerve vines that was in a crack in the ground. "SLEEP!" she screamed as her antennae glowed.

The wave immediately disappeared just as it was about to reach them, and Ego's enormous face faded away as he went to sleep.

Inside the hole, Quill, Rocket, and Mikey inspected the interior. In the distance was a wall with small Swiss-cheese-like holes.

"The metal's too thick," Rocket said. "For the bomb to work, we'd actually need to place it on Ego's core. And our fat butts ain't gonna fit through those tiny holes."

Quill looked down at Groot, who was fiddling with a leaf on his arm. "Well..."

Both Mikey and Rocket followed his gaze, then looked back up at him and simultaneously said, "That's a terrible idea."

"Which is the only kind of idea we got left," Quill told them.

Mikey turned to Rocket. "Hate to say it, Rock, but he's right."

Rocket shook his head and grumbled, "Unbelievable."

Mikey picked up Groot and followed Rocket deeper into the hole while Quill stayed outside to fight off the Sovereign crafts. Once they got deep enough, the raccoon placed the small bomb on the ground and showed Groot how to manually activate it.

"All right, first you flick this switch, then this switch. That activates it. Then you push this button," Rocket pointed to one of two red buttons, "which will give you five minutes to get out of there. Now whatever you do..." He pointed to the other button, which looked just like the first except that it was cracked. "...don't...push... _this_ button, because that will set off the bomb immediately and we'll all be dead."

Mikey looked at Rocket incredulously. "Dude, couldn't you have made this a little bit _simpler_?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Rocket said sarcastically. "I forgot you were a genius, too."

"Well, I'm not but-"

"Then can it and let me do my work!" Rocket turned back to Groot. "Now repeat back what I just said."

"I Am Groot," Groot said.

"Uh-huh."

"I Am Groot."

"That's right."

Groot pointed to the cracked button. "I Am Groot."

"No!" Rocket shouted. "No, that's the button that will kill everyone! Try again!"

Groot rubbed his chin in thought as he looked at the bomb. "I Am Groot."

Rocket nodded. "Mmmm-hmmm."

"I Am Groot."

"Uh-huh."

Again he pointed to the cracked button. "I Am Groot."

" _No!_ That's exactly what you just said! How is that even possible?!"

"Here, let me try," Mikey said as he scooted forward. "Groot, this is the good button," he pointed to the first button, then to the cracked one. "And this is the bad button. Good button. Bad button. You only press the good button. If you push the bad button instead of the good button, we all go boom-boom."

"Okay, now you're just insulting his intelligence," Rocket mumbled.

Mikey ignored him and asked Groot, "Okay, Groot, which is the good button?"

Groot pointed to the first button.

"Good! And which is the bad button?"

He pointed to the cracked button.

"Great! Now which button are you supposed to push?"

With a smile, Groot pointed to the cracked button.

"NO!" both Mikey and Rocket yelled in frustration.

Quill peered into the hole and shouted, "Hey, you're making him nervous!"

"Shut up and get me some tape!" Rocket shouted back to him. "Does anybody have any tape out there? I wanna put some tape over the death button!"

"I don't have any tape! Lemme check!" Quill disappeared from the hole and Mikey and Rocket could hear him asking everyone for some tape amongst the chaos.

As they waited, Rocket impatiently sat with his arms crossed and sighed exasperatedly every few seconds while Mikey repeatedly popped his lips. Groot tried to mimic Mikey in a moment of cuteness, but he couldn't pop his lips since he was made of wood.

Less than a minute later, Quill returned. "Nobody has any tape!"

"Not a _single_ person has tape?" Rocket asked.

"Nope!"

"Did you ask Nebula?"

Quill paused. "Yes!"

"Are you _sure_?"

He paused again. "I asked Yondu and she was sitting next to him!"

"I _knew_ you were lying!"

"You have priceless batteries and an atomic bomb in your bag! If anybody's gonna have tape, it's you!"

As Quill and Rocket continued to argue, Mikey turned his head and saw Groot running toward one of the small holes with the bomb in his hands. He let out a loud gasp and tapped on Rocket's shoulder. "Rocket!"

But Rocket ignored him and continued to bicker with Quill. "That's exactly my point! _I_ have to do _everything_!"

"ROCKET!" Mikey grabbed the raccoon's head and forced him to look at Groot.

They both watched in horror as Groot hopped into the hole, squeeling in delight as he slid down a slope.

Mikey chuckled nervously and tried to be optimistic. "Hey, maybe he'll remember our little lecture and push the right button."

"We're all gonna die," Rocket said in despair.

Mikey's forced smile dropped. The optimism was gone. "Yep. Totally."

...

The Sovereign crafts continued to chase after Yondu's ship and one of the blasters hit the rear end, causing severe damage.

"Agh!" Yondu grunted as he felt the impact. "Rear thrusters are out again!"

The ship slowed down as the thrusters went out and hovered in midair as the Sovereign surrounded them like a herd of hungry sharks.

Leo climbed up into the cockpit to join Nebula and Yondu. "Can't you do something?!" he yelled in panic.

Yondu shook his head. "We're done for without that generator!"

Quill flew into the ship through the opened side and looked on as the fleet continued to close in on them. This was not good.

High Priestess Ayesha's personal craft came forward. _**Guardians**_ , her cold voice spoke through the speakers, ** _perhaps it will provide you solace that your deaths are not without purpose. They will serve as a warning to all of those tempted with betraying us. Don't. Screw. With the Sovereign._**

But as Ayesha spoke, Nebula flipped open a part of her robotic arm and inserted some wiring from the dashboard into it. Leo looked at her in confusion and was about to ask what she was planning to do when the blasters began to hit the ship from all sides.

"This is gonna hurt," Yondu warned Nebula as he flipped some switches.

She only grinned. "Promises, promises."

Yondu flipped one final switch and Nebula's body lit up with blue electricity as the power was drained from her body and transferred into the ship. All of the lasers fired at once and hit every single Sovereign craft as Yondu made the ship spin around like a disco ball.

Back at the Sovereign headquarters, Ayesha watched helplessly as all of the remotely piloted crafts, including her own, get blown up, and when the screen went blank, she threw her head and howled in despair, "NOOOOOOOOOO!"

As the crafts continued to explode, one of the fiery chunks managed to get inside the ship and dripped fuel. Quill noticed this and yelled to the others upstairs, "We're gonna blow!"

From below, Gamora watched as the ship suddenly exploded. "PETER!" she screamed. "LEO!"

A large cloud of black smoke hovered over Gamora's group and burning chunks of the ship came raining down. Nebula dropped down from the cloud unharmed and landed on her feet with ease. She looked up directly at her sister, who was on the verge of tears, then she lifted her face to the sky.

Gamora followed her gaze and was extremely relieved to see Leo, Quill, and Yondu slowly floating down from the smoke. Both Quill and Leo had their Aero-rigs on while Yondu used his arrow to get down by holding it straight up with one arm.

Quill looked up at his mentor and laughed.

"What?" Yondu asked him.

"You look like Mary Poppins."

Leo looked up as well and held back his laughter when he saw how right Quill was.

Yondu didn't get the reference. "Is he cool?"

Both Leo and Quill looked at each for a brief moment before the latter said to Yondu, "Hell yeah, he's cool."

Yondu grinned ear to ear and announced to others with pride, "I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!"

Quill looked back at Leo and winked, silently telling the Turtle to let the blue pirate have this moment. Leo smiled and nodded in understanding.

The three landed safely on the chasm and walked up to Gamora, Nebula, Drax, and Mantis, who was still struggling to keep Ego asleep. A moment later, Mikey and Rocket flew down from the core and rejoined the others.

Mikey approached Leo and smiled warmly at him as he held up his hand for a brotherly handshake.

Leo smiled as well and blinked back his tears. They hadn't done this in a long time since Splinter's death, and it felt so good to grasp that hand and give it a loving squeeze. It felt like their broken bond had finally been mended in that one handshake.

Mikey opened his mouth to speak when he noticed a burning chuck of debris hurling toward Mantis. He was about to yell her name but it knocked her on the side of her head and she was out cold.

"Mantis, look out!" Drax yelled seconds after she was hit.

Everyone gave the tattooed man a look.

"I tried, guys," he said sheepishly.

Mantis had lost her grip on Ego and the ground and walls began to shift once again as the vines glowed brightly.

"Uh-oh," Mikey said nervously. "He's awake."

 **Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!**


	11. Chapter 11

**NOTE: There will probably be granmar mistakes that I will fix later.**

"Crap-crap-crap-crap-crap-crap-CRAP!" Mikey started to panic as Ego awoke from his slumber, his gigantic vines arising from the walls once again. "This is really bad!"

Drax picked up the limp Mantis and checked her over. "She's just unconscious!" he told the others.

"How long before the bomb goes off?!" Quill urgently asked Rocket.

"In the unlikely event that Groot doesn't kill us all, about six minutes!" the raccoon guessed.

"'Unlikely'?!" Leo said incredulously.

Suddenly the surface of the planet unfolded above their heads, revealing the bright sky and the sunlight.

"Look!" Mikey cried out as he pointed to the opening. "A way out!"

Yondu spoke into a communicator on his lapel. "Kraglin! We need the Quadrant for extraction in T-minus five minutes!"

 _Aye, Cap'n!_ Kraglin responded.

"Someone's gotta be up top when Kraglin arrives!" Quill took off his Aero-rig and slapped it on Drax's back. "Drax, take Mantis!"

The Aero-rig automatically wrapped itself around Drax's upper body. "Ow!" he yelled as he ascended to the top with Mantis in his arms. "My nipples!"

The chasm upon which the rest stood started to crumble and collaspe, and Gamora and Nebula fell through a crack but landed safely on another chasm far below. The others were surrounded by Ego's glowing vines which wiggled violently and angrily, and his huge face appeared before them with a furious expression.

 ** _PETER!_** he roared in a thunderous voice.

"Well, he's not happy," Mikey gulped.

"Ya think?!" Rocket yelled sarcastically as he began to fire his gun at the vines that were coming at them.

Mikey and Leo used their ninja weapons and skills to defend themselves against the vines while Yondu used his magic arrow. Quill aimed for Ego's face but the Celestial easily deflected the blasts with his tentacles.

 **Come now, Peter,** Ego scorned. **I know this isn't what you want. What kind of father would I be to let you make this choice?**

"Oh, yeah!" Mikey yelled angrily at him, taking his focus off the vines for a second. "You're _totally_ Father of the Year! Oof!" He grunted as a vine collided with his body and sent him flying.

Ego became more enraged as Quill continued to resist and fight him. **Soon, Peter, we will be all there is! So STOP! PISSING ME! OFF!**

A vine hit Quill in the face so hard it split his space mask in half and he fell to the ground with a gash on his left temple. When he got back on his feet, he turned and saw his father's normal-sized skeletal form slowly walking toward him, the muscle and tissue growing back.

The vines managed to snap Yondu's arrow in half and one of them pinned the blue pirate to the ground. Yondu cried out in pain as he was slowly being crushed. Another vine wrapped itself around Rocket and started to squeeze the life out of him.

Mikey saw that his furry little friend was in danger and used his Aero-rig to fly toward him. "Hold on, Rocket! I'm-!" A large rock that was as big as he was suddenly came down on him from the roof and was so heavy that it not only pinned the Turtle down but it also damaged his Aero-rig. Mikey groaned in pain and tried to get up, but the weight of the rock was too much.

Leo stopped fighting off the vines when he noticed his injured brother lying on the ground. "MIKEY!" He started to run to the other Turtle, but then a vine grabbed him by the ankle and threw him off the chasm. Thinking quickly, he drove both his swords into the wall and used them as anchors. He stopped falling, but he wasn't safe for long as more vines came from out of the crust and one wrapped itself around the ninja, trapping him.

Ego continued to walk toward his defiant son. "I told you, I don't want to do this alone. You cannot deny the purpose the universe has bestowed upon you!"

A large tentacle of light sprouted up from the ground and stabbed through Quill's torso, sucking the light out of him. The planet's core began to glow brightly as it absorbed Quill's energy. Quill screamed in pain as smaller tentacles stabbed into his body and face.

"It doesn't need to be like this, Peter," Ego began to appear more human as the skin and hair grew back. "Why are you destroying our chance? Stop pretending you aren't what you are. One in billions. Trillions. Even more."

From under the rock, Mikey glared at Ego. "Dude," he said weakly, "you talk too much." In response to the Turtle's insult, the Celestial had one of the smaller vines wrap itself around Mikey's lower face, both silencing and suffocating him.

Ego stood before his son in his fully restored form. "What greater meaning can life possibly have to offer?"

Quill could feel himself fading away as the tentacle continued to drain his life force. Then he heard Yondu calling out to him.

"I don't use my head to fly the arrow, boy!" Yondu yelled. "I use my heart-" He was silenced as the earth covered his face and body and buried him.

The human's eyes widened and filled with tears as he looked deep inside himself and the memories came flooding in.

His younger self lying on a field of grass with his mother, the both of them listening to music on his Walkman.

Him doubling over as he laughed hysterically with Drax on the Milano.

Him flying through the clouds with Rocket using their Aero-rigs, the wind blowing in their faces.

Mikey handing him a pizza box with a smile, the first pizza he had in years since his abduction.

Gamora looking into his eyes as they danced on Knowhere.

Yondu teaching him how to shoot a gun in a forest.

He finally understood; he already had a family before he met Ego. And right now, his family needed him more than ever. His clenched his hands into fists as the urge to protect them gave him the strength to push back against the tentacles. Bits of the earth were drawn to them as though he were magnet and they swirled around him.

Ego realized that his son was breaking from his grasp and became worried.

Quill glared at his father. "You shouldn't have killed my Mom and squished my Walkman," he growled.

BOOM!

He broke free from the tentacles and slammed into Ego with great force. The two wrestled with each other as they dashed throughout the entire center, smashing through columns of rock. As he struggled to defend himself, Ego lost focus and therefore his grasp on the others.

Mikey coughed violently as the vine released his face and retreated back into the ground. He heard Rocket calling his name and weakly lifted his head to see the raccoon running toward him.

"Hold on, kid!" Rocket struggled to push the rock off Mikey's shell but it was too heavy. Luckily, Yondu came to his aid and the two managed to free the Turtle. Rocket immediately checked his friend's shell, and to his relief, there appeared to be no damage since Mikey's Aero-rig protected him but was destroyed in the process.

"You alright, Turtle?" Yondu asked as he helped Mikey up.

"Peachy," Mikey groaned, feeling sore all over but thankful to be alive.

Rocket flew up to the core and yelled into the blast hole, "Groot! Groot, if you can hear me, hurry up! I'm not sure how long Quill can keep him distracted!"

Deep within the core, little Groot stood before the Ego's true form, the cosmic brain, which pulsated and flashed blue and red lights and was surrounded by a transparent placenta. Groot carefully placed the bomb on the protective layer and flipped the switches as Rocket instructed, but then he got to the two buttons.

"Groot, hurry!" Rocket yelled outside the core.

Groot stared at the buttons, trying to remember which one he was supposed to push. He lifted his finger and was about to pick the cracked one. But then he remembered Mikey's words, _This is the bad button. Bad button. If you press the bad button instead of the good button, we all go boom-boom._

After thinking for a few seconds, he pushed the other button and the countdown began on the bomb's timer. The little tree creature then ran as fast as he could toward the exit.

...

As soon as he was freed from the vines, Leo began he climb up the wall using his swords. But the walls began to crumble and crack and the ninja lost his grip. As he fell, he hit his head on one of the rocky columns and was knocked out cold. But a green hand reached out and grabbed him by the nuchal of his shell just in time.

Gamora and Nebula stood on a rift of land that was rising to the top, and the former spotted Leo as he fell from the above. Gamora caught and pulled the unconscious Leo to the safety. He had a large head wound but was still breathing. Nebula noticed his swords coming down and managed to grab one, but the other fell to the bottom and was lost forever. The sisters made it to the surface and carried Leo to the Quadrant.

...

Back in the center, Yondu and Mikey watched as Quill and Ego continued to fight fiercely. Rocket flew down to them with Groot on his shoulder.

"Guys, we're about to blow!" he yelled.

"We gotta get outta here!" Mikey grabbed Yondu's arm. "Come on!"

But to his confusion, the Ravager pulled away. "Get to the ship!" Yondu shouted as he pointed to the top.

"Not without Quill!" Rocket said.

Yondu pushed Mikey toward the raccoon. "You need to get the kid outta here! His Aero-rig's busted!"

Mikey looked up at Yondu shocked. "But what about-"

"I'll take care of Quill!"

The Turtle turned to Rocket. "You have more Aero-rigs, right? And spacesuits?"

Rocket's face became somber and he shook his head. "I only have one of each."

Mikey's heart dropped once he realized what Yondu was preparing to do. He turned back to the Ravager with pleading eyes. "Yondu," he said softly, "you can't."

Yondu's lips tightened into a thin smile and he shook his head. "I ain't done nothin' right my whole damn life." He looked up at Rocket. "You need to give me this."

Rocket silently stared at him with sad brown eyes as he reached into his belt bag and pulled out a spacesuit disk and an Aero-rig.

Yondu pulled the Troll out of his pant pocket and handed it to Mikey. "I finally get it now, Turtle." He patted Mikey's arm with a nod. "Thanks."

Mikey could feel the tears coming and he could only nod back.

Rocket dropped to the ground after he took off his Aero-rig, which he gave to Mikey, then he handed the spare Aero-rig and spacesuit disk to Yondu. Mikey slapped Rocket's Aero-rig onto his shell and picked up the raccoon, carrying him with his left arm, while Groot stood on his right shoulder.

The three stared sadly at Yondu for a brief moment, none of them wanting to say goodbye to the Ravager. Then Groot squeaked, "I Am Groot."

"What's that?" Yondu asked.

Rocket grinned a little. "He said, 'Welcome to the frickin' Guardians of the Galaxy.' Only he didn't use 'frickin''."

Yondu grinned and watched as they flew toward the surface, with Groot waving goodbye over Mikey's shoulder. "Bye, Twig."

As they got closer to the opening, Rocket said to Groot, "We're gonna need to have a real discussion about your language."

Mikey chuckled softly. "Yeah, Pottymouth."

...

Quill grunted in pain as he slammed into the wall, but he quickly pulled himself together and charged at Ego once again. He summoned yellow rocks and morphed them together into a giant version of Pac-Man, which opened and closed its mouth just like in the games.

Ego also summoned rocks and formed a giant Avatar of himself, which pulled its fist back as it prepared to punch its opponent.

The two giants collided and the rocks dispersed upon contact. Both Quill and Ego came tumbling down and landed on a chasm, extremely weakened.

...

In the loading bay of the Quadrant, Gamora tended to Mantis and Leo when she heard the roar of jets. She looked up and saw Mikey flying toward them with Rocket and Groot holding onto him. But they were still missing one more teammate.

"Where's Peter?" she asked them as they landed on the dock.

Neither Mikey nor Rocket could answer or even look at her. Mikey instead went to his brother's side while Rocket merely stared at the timer in his hands.

"Rocket, where is he?" Gamora asked the raccoon urgently. Then she started to yell, "Rocket! ROCKET, LOOK AT ME! WHERE IS HE?!"

Rocket didn't have the heart to tell her and merely shook his head. She then turned to Mikey for an answer, but he instead focused on Leo. Finally, Groot pointed outside with a sad expression.

Gamora stood up. "No," she snatched a large gun off the wall and started to walk out. "I'm not leaving without him."

"Gamora, wait!" Mikey called after her.

But she ignored the Turtle and was about to jump off the bay when an electric blast hit her from behind. She cried out before she dropped to the floor unconscious.

Rocket lowered his taser gun with a remorseful look. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I can only afford to lose one friend today." He then yelled up to Kraglin in the cockpit, "Kraglin, GO!"

As the ship started to ascend, a frantic Drax spoke to them through the intercom. _Rocket, where's Quill? Rocket! Where's Quill?! ROCKET! WHERE'S QUILL?! WHERE'S QUILL?!"_

Mikey stood next to Rocket and sadly watched as the bay's doors slowly closed. He clutched the Troll close to his chest, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

...

Ego knew that time was almost up for both of them and tried to get back up, but Quill kept him down. He desperately reached for the core. "No! We need to stop it! We need to stop it!"

But Quill wouldn't let up and threw him to the ground.

The Celestial sat up and grabbed Quill's jacket, pleading with him. "Stop. Stop. Listen! LISTEN TO ME! You are a _god_! If you kill me, you'll be just like everybody else!"

Quill stared hard at Ego. "What's so wrong with that?"

 _"NO!"_ Ego screamed in horror.

The bomb within the core went up, destroying the cosmic brain and sending energy waves throughout the entire planet. Ego went stiff in Quill's grasp before he turned into dust. Quill could feel the light within him fade away and looked around him.

Everything was falling apart and there were explosions everywhere, but he wasn't afraid. He had saved everyone and that was all that mattered. He was at peace...

Suddenly something tackled into him and he was flying toward the surface.

Yondu had grabbed him and was using his Aero-rig to carry them to safety. They narrowly dodged all of the explosions and falling pieces of earth until they got out of the center. They could feel heat of the planet's impending destruction below their feet as they soared into the sky.

"He may have been your father, boy," Yondu glanced at Quill, "but he wasn't your Daddy."

Quill just looked at him surprised.

Yondu continued in a voice that was uncharacteristically gentle. "I'm sorry I didn't do none of it right. I'm damn lucky you're my boy." He then slapped the spacesuit disk onto Quill and the force field instantly surrounded the human's entire body.

"What?" Quill gasped.

Yondu grinned at him and continued to fly into the planet's atmosphere.

When they entered space, Quill began to panic. "Yondu, what are you doing?! You _can't_!"

Frost began to form on Yondu's face and he gasped as he felt the last bit of air get sucked out of his lungs. Below them Ego's planet crumbled and imploded.

"Yondu!" Quill shouted pleadingly.

The jets in Yondu's Aero-rig lost their fuel and they gently floated in space.

Quill frantically tried to pull the disk off his jacket, but the spacesuit's protective field wouldn't allow him and all he could do was watch as Yondu slowly died in front of him. He began to scream and sob. "No! No! Oh, god! No! NOOOO! _OHH, NOOOOO!_ "

As Quill cried and struggled, Yondu slowly lifted his hands and gently held the human's face, and with the last bit of strength he had left, he gave his adopted son a fatherly caress. Then frost settled over his red eyes and he went limp.

He started to drift away but Quill grabbed onto him and sobbed into his chest.

 **Sniff...**

 **This scene always chokes me up. :,(**


	12. Chapter 12

**Here we are! The last chapter...BEFORE THE EPILOGUE! Yes, there will be an epilogue.**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.**

The whole room was silent as everyone paid their respects to the fallen Ravager, whose body lay on a plank and was covered with strips of cloth. He was surrounded by flowers, lit candles, and his favorite toys, including the Troll doll.

The Guardians, the Hamato brothers, Kraglin, and Mantis stood at the table, while Nebula stood at a doorway and watched. Leo had his head wrapped in a bandage from the fall but was recovering quickly.

Quill began the eulogy in soft, somber voice. "The other day, I told Gamora how I used to pretend my Dad was David Hasselhoff."

Drax and Rocket looked at each other confused, unfamiliar with that name.

"David Hasselhoff's a famous actor from Earth," Leo explained softly.

"Really cool dude," Mikey added with a nod.

"And you know," Quill continued, "today it struck me. Yondu didn't have a talking car, but he did have a flying arrow. He didn't have the beautiful voice of an angel, but he did have the whistle of one. Both Yondu and David Hasselhoff went on kickass adventures and hooked up with hot women and fought robots. I guess David Hasselhoff kinda did end up being my Dad after all..." A tear rolled down his cheek and his voice cracked a bit. "...only it was you, Yondu. I had a pretty cool Dad."

Rocket lowered his head in sadness with his ears flattened. Mikey dried his tears while Leo soothingly rubbed his brother's shell.

Quill took a deep shaky breath. "What I'm trying to say here is, sometimes that thing you're searching for your whole life, it's right there by your side all along. You don't even know it."

Gamora glanced over at Nebula, only to see her walk away and she quickly followed after her.

Groot looked up at Rocket. "I Am Groot."

Rocket nodded. "He did call you 'twig'."

Mikey sniffled. "I called him 'Mandrill Butt'."

...

Nebula walked down a small hallway when she heard her sister call out to her.

"Nebula!"

She stopped and slowly turned to face her but didn't look her in the eye.

Gamora walked up to her. "I was a child like you. I was concerned with staying alive until the next day, every day. And I never considered what Thanos was doing to you. I'm trying to make it right. There are little girls like you across the universe who are in danger. You can stay with us and help them."

Nebula finally lifted her face and looked directly at Gamora. "I will help them by killing Thanos."

Gamora shook her head. "I don't know if that's possible."

Nebula paused for a moment, but her mind was made up and she turned to leave. But then to her surprise, Gamora grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. She tensed up, not knowing how to react to this.

"You will always be my sister," Gamora said softly.

For the first time in years, Nebula's eyes filled with tears, and she placed a trembling hand on her sister's back. Then she pulled away from the embrace and continued down the hallway with Gamora watching sadly.

...

Mikey stood in front of a large window and stared blankly ahead, lost in his thoughts.

They had placed Yondu in the furnace and cremated him, and soon afterwards they were going to release his ashes into space. The funeral reminded him of Splinter's, except that they didn't have a eulogy on that day. All of them were too stunned and heartbroken to even speak that day. And Mikey had so many questions that he never to got ask his adoptive father, so many things left unsaid. He still wondered if...

He heard someone approaching and turned around.

Leo had walked into the room and gave Mikey a small, sad smile. "Hey, Mikey."

Mikey simply nodded and turned back to the window.

The older Turtle stood next to his brother and watched the stars with him. For a moment, there was utter silence between them before Mikey spoke softly, "Sorry about your sword."

Leo shrugged. "At least Nebula was able to save the other one."

"But it was special; it belonged to Splinter."

"I know, but it was just a sword. Splinter's memory continues to live in our hearts." Leo glanced at Mikey with a warm smile. "The important thing is _you're_ safe, Little Brother. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you."

Mikey didn't look at him, but he swallowed as a lump formed in his throat.

The smile on Leo's face dropped as he turned back to the glass. "Which reminds me, are you still thinking about...you know...staying with the Guardians? Is that what you truly want?"

There was a momentary pause before Mikey responded with a shrug. "Honestly, I don't know what I want anymore."

Leo sighed softly. "Mikey, listen. Look at me."

The younger Turtle reluctantly turned his head and looked into his brother's strong midnght blue eyes.

"Don't worry about _my_ feelings. Do what _you_ think is best for you. I'll understand, and so will Raph and Donnie. I thought about what you said the other day, about the four of us going our separate ways. As much as I want us all to stay together forever, I also realize that growing up is inevitable. And even if we're galaxies apart..." He gently touched Mikey's shoulder. "...our hearts will still be connected."

Mikey opened his mouth to speak, but the words couldn't come out.

Leo continued as his eyes shined with unshed tears. "Saying goodbye will be the hardest thing I've ever had to do. But I just want you to be happy again, Mikey." He smiled as he squeezed Mikey's shoulder. "And if you're happy, I'm happy."

Mikey bit his lower lip, which was trembling with emotion, and he looked away once again.

Leo felt hurt when his brother pulled away from his touch. But then he noticed a tear roll down his freckled cheek and he instantly became worried. "Mikey?"

"Leo," Mikey croaked, "tell me the truth, okay?" He paused before he took a deep breath. "W-Was Splinter...ashamed of me?"

"...W-What?" Leo's eyes widened in shock.

Mikey hugged himself as he lowered his head, his tears dropping to the floor. "I-I know I wasn't the best student, and I acted like the class clown all the time, but...but what else could I be? I mean, I'm not as brave and disciplined as you are. I'm nowhere near as smart as Donnie. And-And I'm a wimp compared to Raph. All I'm good for is cooking and comedy, and sometimes I-I even suck at doing both."

As Leo listened to Mikey's confession, he felt his heart sink. Had Mikey always felt this way?

"And-And it didn't help whenever Sensei looked at me with..." Mikey sniffled. "...with so much disappointment. I know he loved me, Leo. I _know_ he did. But...I could never live up to his expectations. That's why I feel so comfortable around the Guardians. They accept me for who I am, 'cause they're all outcasts like me. When I'm with them, I can be...well...me."

Leo finally spoke up. "Mikey, you're not an outcast. I'm sorry if we've made you feel that way." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll admit, none of us give you enough credit and we should've had more faith in you. And you may not had been Splinter's favorite student, but you were never a disappointment to him. In fact," he chuckled softly, "I probably should've told you this story a long time ago..."

...

 _"You've summoned me, Sensei?" Leo knelt before his master in the dojo._

 _The elder rat sat down on a mat and nodded with a grunt. "Yes, Leonardo. I've been noticing your lack of patience with Michelangelo. Earlier you lashed out at him for making jokes as he usually does during training."_

 _Leo sighed. "I'm trying to help him improve, Sensei, but Mikey's...well, he's just Mikey."_

 _Splinter grinned. "Yes, and he will always be Mikey. No amount of training will ever change that."_

 _"But if he doesn't get serious and focus enough-"_

 _"Leonardo, you are a good student. You have always been so disciplined and dedicated toward your training. And no one understands your frustration more than I. But you do need to...'lighten up a bit', as Michelangelo would put it."_

 _Leo looked at his father slightly confused. "Sensei...?"_

 _"Even ninjas need a good laugh now and then. After all, humor is good for the soul. A wise man once said, 'Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.' Yes, Michelangelo does tend to lose focus, and it is your duty as leader to keep him in the right direction. But he needs your guidance as much as you need his sunny spirit._ _Michelangelo_ _teaches us to enjoy each other's company and to appreciate what we have with his optimistic spirit. So we shouldn't punish him for being himself."_

 _The eldest Turtle looked down at the floor in shame. He remembered the hurt look that flashed across Mikey's face after being yelled at during practice._ I guess I have been too hard on him lately, _he thought._

 _Splinter chuckled softly. "Michelangelo actually reminds me of myself when I was his age."_

 _"W-What?" Leo looked up at his father in surprise._

 _The rat nodded. "As a teenager, I would often tease and prank Saki, even during our training sessions. Of course, Father didn't tolerate my behavior and would punish me severely, stating that I needed to be a man. So over the years, I've forgotten how to have fun because I spent so much of my time bettering myself. But Michelangelo has helped me to reconnect with my inner child."_

 _Leo smiled. "I understand, Sensei. I'll go apologize to him right now." He bowed to his teacher before he stood up and headed toward the exit. But then he stopped and turned to Splinter again. "By the way, Sensei, who was this 'wise man' that you quoted earlier? Was he a ninja master or a Buddhist priest?"_

 _Splinter smiled. "No. I believe his name was Mark Twain."_

 _..._

Mikey stared at his brother wide-eyed. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "S-Sensei was...like _me_?"

Leo nodded. "You've always believed that he was ashamed of you, when in truth, Mikey, he was very proud of you."

"Wow," Mikey whispered as he looked back to the stars. He never knew that Splinter thought so highly of him, and to learn that they had more in common than he thought made him feel so good inside; in fact, he felt that his heart could soar. His lips lifted into a smile and he started to laugh. "Man! I can believe Splinter was a prankster like me! That's crazy!"

Leo laughed with his brother. "I know."

Mikey calmed down after a few minutes and looked at Leo with a grin. "I'm going back home, bro."

Although Leo was extremely relieved to hear Mikey say that, he wanted to make sure that it was what his little brother really wanted. "Are you _sure_ , Mikey?"

The younger Turtle nodded. "I do have a lot of fun with the Guardians, but I'd rather live a quiet life on Earth with my bros than fight every day to survive in space, 'cause you know Rocket: he can't stay out of trouble for five minutes."

Leo chuckled and raised an eye ridge. "A 'quiet' life, huh?"

Mikey shrugged. "Well, it's not quiet _all_ the time." Then he grabbed Leo in a big hug. "Thanks, Leo."

The older Turtle returned the hug with a big smile. He glanced out the window and was surprised by what he saw. There were a few ships outside but none of them looked like they belonged to the Sovereign. So were they friends or foes?

Mikey saw them too and pulled away from Leo in alarm. "Who are they?"

...

On the flight deck, Rocket, Drax and Mantis silently watched as Yondu's glowing red ashes were released into space. Then suddenly, dozens of ships came out of nowhere and surrounded the Quadrant.

Rocket sat up in his seat and a smile formed on his lips. "They came."

Leo and Mikey both rushed into the room, preparing for the worst. But then, to their confusion, the ships began to set off fireworks. They didn't appear to be hostile.

Mikey scratched his head. "Uh, I'm assuming we're not under attack?"

Drax moved closer to the window mesmerized. "What is it?" he asked softly.

Rocket hopped out of his chair. "I sent word to Yondu's old Ravager buddies and told them what he did."

Mikey was touched. Even though Yondu broke the code as well as their hearts, the other Ravager captains forgave him and came to say goodbye in the most beautiful way.

"It's a Ravager funeral," Quill announced as he walked in with Gamora, who held Groot in her hand.

The whole crew gathered around on the deck to watch the colorful show. It reminded Mikey of the Fourth of July, and it was for the roughneck, blue-skinned Ravager who gave his life to save his son.

"He didn't chase them away," he heard Rocket say in a quiet voice.

Quill walked up behind Rocket and shook his head. "No."

"Even though he yelled at them," Rocket glanced down at his feet. "And was always mean. And he stole batteries he didn't need."

The human immediately understood that Rocket was apologizing for his past mistakes in his own way. "Well, of course not."

Mikey sat down on the floor next to Rocket and wrapped an arm around the raccoon. "You're not getting rid of us that easily, dude, even though you're a grouchy, greedy trash panda."

Instead of yelling at the Turtle for calling him that name, Rocket simply smiled and continued to watch the ceremony.

As Yondu's sparkling ashes continued to float, they slowly formed the shape of an arrow, and neither Mikey nor Rocket could hold back their tears.

 _Goodbye, Yondu,_ Mikey silently prayed to the Ravager's departing spirit, _and thanks._

* * *

 _ **Nova Headquarters**_

Mikey and Leo stood before the Guardians in the main hall. The time had come for the Hamato brothers to say goodbye to their friends and the whole atmosphere was somber. It was especially hard for Mikey, who had tears in his eyes.

"Thanks for giving me another awesome adventure, guys," he said softly with a small, sad smile.

Quill nodded, blinking away his own tears. "Thanks for coming with us. And this really isn't goodbye. We'll definitely come to pick you up for another adventure someday."

"I hope so, 'cause I always have so much fun with you guys."

Gamora smiled gently at the young Turtle. "We'll miss you, Mikey." She then looked at his older brother. "Take care of him, Leo."

Leo smiled at the green warrior who had become his friend and nodded. "You know I will."

Drax, of course, couldn't hold back his tears and they came pouring down. Mantis stood next to him and was about to ease his pain with her powers, but he gently grabbed her hand before she could touch him and shook his head. The tattooed man took a deep breath and turned to Mikey. "I look forward to our next reunion, Michelangelo."

Mikey nodded. "Ditto. I'll really miss you, Drax. You, too, Mantis."

Mantis smiled, and this time it was a nice, genuine smile that lit up her whole face. She really was improving her social skills.

Rocket came forward with Groot in his hands and Mikey picked up the little tree creature, whose dark eyes brimmed with tears.

"Aw, don't cry, Groot," Mikey cooed soothingly as he rubbed Groot's cheek with his finger. "We'll see each other again. I promise."

Groot grabbed Mikey's finger with his tiny hand and said, "I Am Groot."

The Turtle chuckled and held Groot close to his cheek in a hug. He didn't need Rocket's translation to understand what the little guy just said to him. "Yeah, I love you, too." He put Groot down on the floor and looked up at Rocket.

For a moment, the two animals just sadly stared at each other, before Mikey extended his hand for a farewell handshake. He knew that Rocket wasn't the mushy type and would prefer to-

Rocket suddenly wrapped his arms around Mikey and rested his cheek on the Turtle's plastron, much to the shock of everyone in the room. After a few seconds, Mikey retuned the hug and held the raccoon close.

"I'll, uh..." Rocket said in a quiet voice, "I'll miss you."

Mikey merely nodded, though a lone tear ran down his cheek. He then stood up with Rocket still latched onto him and motioned for the other Guardians to come join him in a group hug, which they gladly did. Groot climbed onto Mikey's foot and hugged his ankle. Even Mantis joined them (after Drax pulled her in because she was hesitant).

Leo watched the touching scene before him from a short distance. He was happy for his little brother, because he had the greatest friends in the galaxy. No, scratch that. In the _universe_.

* * *

 _ **Earth**_

"Ahh," Mikey sighed as he and Leo walked down the tunnels of the sewers. "I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again."

Leo chuckled. "Yeah, me, too. I just hope that Chompy hasn't chew up my pillows again."

They had decided not to inform Raph and Donnie that they were on the way back home and wanted to surprise them instead. However, the minute they stepped into the lair, their eyes pratically bugged out and their jaws dropped to the floor.

The whole living room was a complete mess. Discarded pieces of trash and pizza boxes lay on the floor, the pinball machine had been tilted over, there were stains all over the walls, and sewer rats were eating out of garbage bags.

Raph was asleep on the couch, snoring loudly with a magazine covering his face, while Donnie was sleeping on the floor in front of the TV and rested his head on a smile pile of books.

Leo's face became red and Mikey thought he saw steam coming out of the leader's ears. The younger Turtle immediately knew he had to get out of the line of fire.

"Well," Mikey chuckled nervously. "I'm gonna go check on Ice Cream Kitty." He then sprinted into the kitchen, all the while praying for God to have mercy on his brothers' souls.

Leo stomped over to the entertainment center, stood before his brothers, and loudly cleared his throat.

Raph awoke with a startle and removed the magazine from his face. He was shocked to see Leo standing there with his arms crossed and a furious expression on his face. "Leo!" he cried as he sat up. "You're, uh, back already?"

"Yes," Leo growled, his eyes burning with rage.

Donnie fluttered his eyes open and yawned. "Whazzat, Raph?" he mumbled tiredly. But he became fully awake when he saw Leo standing over him and quickly got up. "Leo! Oh! Oh, crud! Uh..."

Leo raised his hand to silence his genius brother. "Before either of you say anything else, I just want to know one thing: have you been keeping up with your training while I was gone?"

Both Raph and Donnie looked at each other, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. "Uhhhh..."

Leo grinned wickedly and cracked his knuckles. "Well, then, let's find out, shall we?"

 **Poor Raph and Donnie. Well...no, they deserved it actually.**

 **Next chapter, EPILOGUE!**


	13. Chapter 13

**NOTE: There will probably be granmar mistakes that I will fix later.**

 _ **Four years later...**_

"Hold still, blast you!"

On the streets of New York, Baxter Stockman fired the cannons of his new exo suit at Mikey and Raph, who narrowly avoided the bullets with their ninja speed. The crazed scientist had gone back to his crooked ways shortly after the Turtles reversed his mutation, and he even built his own army of super fly-droids that could bite a limb off with their massive jaws. Though Stockman was really annoying, he at least kept the Hamato brothers out of boredom.

As for our reptilian heroes, they were no longer teenagers and within a few months, they would all turn twenty-one. They still lived together in the sewers and continued to fight crime in the shadows, but their lives were about to be changed forever...

"Hey, Raph!" Mikey shouted as he jumped onto the roof of a car. "When are you gonna ask Mona to marry you?"

"Are we really gonna discuss this _now_?!" Raph threw his sai at Stockman, but fly-droid swooped in and caught it with its jaws. The hotheaded cursed as the robot flew off with his weapon.

"Well, it's been four years!" Mikey continued. He quickly jumped off the car just as Stockman brought his mechanical fist down to crush him. "And we're not getting any younger!"

"I'll ask her when I'm ready to ask her!" Raph charged at Stockman from behind and raised his remaining sai to attack.

But another fly-droid suddenly barreled into him and knocked him to the ground. It landed on top of him and prepared to bite his face off with its deadly jaws. Thankfully Raph was much quicker and stabbed right through the droid's head.

Meanwhile, Leo and Donnie were dealing with the army of fly-droids a block away. The former fought them off with his sword while the latter fiddled with a small device in his hands.

"How much longer, Donnie?!" Leo yelled as he sliced through another droid.

"Just a few more seconds!" Donnie replied as he punched in the last few digits.

Planted throughout the entire borough were EMP bombs of Donnie's own design. The electromagnetic pulse would cause a temporary blackout, but it would also permanently disable Stockman's droids. As Donnie predicted, the moment the bombs released the radiation, the lights in every building went off and the fly-droids fell to the ground.

Mikey cheered as the fly-droids dropped like...well...flies all around him. "Whoo-hoo! We did it!"

"You haven't won yet!" Stockman activated another gun which shot out a sticky red slime. He was able to hit Mikey and the Turtle squeaked as he became stuck to the side of a building.

"Mikey!" Raph ran to help his brother, but then he was hit, too, and the gooey substance held him down.

They were both totally helpless and at the mercy of Stockman, who laughed maniacally.

"I anticipated that you would use an electromagnetic pulse against my droids," the scientist explained. "That's why I designed this suit with a special shielding that would protect me from it. EMP is useless against the Stockman-Pod!" He aimed his cannons at the two brothers and prepared to fire. "Nothing can harm me!"

"Except my blade!"

Stockman looked up to see Leo dropping from a building above him and raising his katana. He yelped and covered himself with his mechanical arms. But the Turtle managed to slice through both of them.

Leo then cut down both of the robot's legs, causing it to tumble over. Baxter quickly unbuckled himself and crawled out of his seat, but before he could get away, Leo brought his foot down on the human's back and pinned him to the pavement.

"You're not going anywhere," Leo said with a cocky grin.

Donnie caught up to his brothers and used a laser-pen to free Mikey and Raph from the sticky slime. "You guys okay?"

Raph groaned as he flicked a bit of slime off his arm. "Yeah, but I'm gonna need a bath."

Suddenly Donnie's T-phone began to ring. "Excuse me a sec," he mumbled as he took off his belt and read the caller ID. "It's April." He answered and put it to his ear as he walked away. "Hey, April. What's up?"

Raph picked up a ball of red slime and glared down at Stockman. "I say we take this goo and shove it up his-"

"No, Raph," Leo said calmly. "We're done here." He then dragged Stockman over a fire hydrant and handcuffed him to it. "We'll let the police take care of him."

"This isn't over, Turtles!" Stockman yelled angrily as he tugged at the cuffs. "I'll be back! And you will suffer my wrath!"

Mikey chuckled and shook his head. "When will you ever learn, dude? The bad guys _never_ win."

"April!" Donnie suddenly sounded worried as he continued to talk to her, which prompted his brothers to look at him. "April, calm down! We'll...We'll figure this out, okay? We'll be there shortly."

"Donnie, what's going on?" Leo asked his brother after he hung up the phone.

Donnie looked at his brothers with a grim expression. "April's hysterical. She keeps saying that her Dad just...disappeared right in front of her."

"Wait, what do you mean he 'disappeared'?" Mikey asked.

"Well, the way she described it, it's like he suddenly turned to-" Donnie's eyes went big and he stopped talking. For a few seconds, he just stood there, staring at his brothers, then he dropped his phone.

"Donnie?" Leo walked up to him. "Are you all right?"

"I-I..." Donnie stuttered, his face pale and his eyes still big. "S-Something's not..."

"Donnie?" Leo gently touched his brother's shoulder...

...and Donnie's body suddenly turned to dust and was carried away by the wind.

The stunned brothers stood in silence for a moment, before Mikey spoke in a quivering voice, "W-Where did Donnie go?"

"Donnie?" Raph lifted his head to the sky and called out to his brother. "Donnie?! DONNIE! DONNIE, ANSWER ME!" He turned to Stockman and roughly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, his emerald eyes ablaze with unspeakable rage. "Was this _your_ doing?! TALK!"

Stockman trembled in the Turtle's grasp and frantically shook his head. "I-I-I didn't do _anything_! I swear! I-I-!" He suddenly gasped and went stiff, and just like Donnie, he turned to dust, leaving only the handcuffs that were still attached to the hydrant.

Raph backed away in fear and was starting to panic. "What's going on here?! First April's Dad, then Donnie, and now Stockman!"

"Is this...the end of the world?" Mikey whimpered.

"Alright, let's...let's just be calm," Leo said, though he was clearly as shaken up as the others.

"Calm down?!" Raph said incredulously. "Everyone is disappearing around us and you expect us to _be calm_?!"

"Raph, listen, panicking is not gonna..." He trailed off as he eyes widened. Bits of dust were starting to flake off his body.

"Oh, no," Raph whispered in despair. "No, no, no, no, no, no." He ran to his older brother and hugged him in a desperate attempt to keep him from disappearing. "Don't go," he softly pleaded, his voice shaking. "Don't go. Please don't. Stay with us. Please stay. Please, Brother. Don't..."

But Leo turned to dust in his arms and drifted away.

Raph slowly turned to his remaining brother, who had tears in his blue eyes and was shaking. "Mikey..." he whispered.

"Raph," Mikey gulped, "are we gonna die?"

The hotheaded Turtle shook his head, close to crying. "I don't know, Mikey."

Not knowing what was going to happen next, Mikey ran to Raph and hugged him, crying on his shoulder. "I don't wanna die, Raph."

Raph could only hold his little brother closer, waiting for the end.

So they stood there for the next five minutes, waiting and crying, but nothing happened. Then they heard a woman shouting down the street.

"Paulie! Paulie, where are you?!" A blonde woman in her mid-thirties had mascara running down her face from crying as she looked around frantically. "Come to Mommy, sweetie!"

A young Hispanic man came running out of his apartment and onto the street. "¿Dónde estás, mamá? ¡Respóndeme!"

Soon the streets were filled with scared and devasted people looking for their missing loved ones. No one seemed to notice the two mutant Turtles that stood in the midst of the crowd.

Mikey and Raph were both confused and terrified. Who could've done this?

...

On another planet, a large purple-skinned man with no hair and ridges on his chin walked out of his small hut to look at the beautiful countryside. This world was uninhabited and completely silent save for the faint rustling of the crops in the fields as they rubbed against each other.

But the rest of the universe was crying out in anguish and despair.

He looked at the sunset before him and smiled in satisfaction.

It was done.

 **Thank you all for your support and reviews for this story!**

 **And as for that cliffhanger, yes, there will be a Ninja Turtles/Endgame crossover! It's title will be "Age Of Aquarius"!**


	14. Chapter 14

**HI, EVERYONE! I JUST POSTED THE FIRST CHAPTER OF "AGE OF AQUARIUS"! THE STORY CONTINUES!**

 **Please check it out when you can. Thank you. :)**


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